At first, Richard thought nothing of it. Assuming her weight loss was the result of successful work with her personal trainer, he congratulated her saying, “You look great.”
Karen replied, “Well, I’m just going to get down to around 105.” Worried about her response, Richard said, “A hundred and five? You look great now.” Karen was not convinced.
Food Gradually Became an Obsession
For Karen, eating less food was becoming an obsession.
She cut back whenever she could and then overly rationalized her behavior with comments like this one from 1973: “When you’re on the road it’s hard to eat. Period. On top of that, it’s rough to eat well. We don’t like to eat before a show because I can’t stand singing with a full stomach. . ."
Losing Weight Becomes an Obsession
Karen was slim and trim and looking good. But inside, the obsession about her weight was getting bad. Those around her were beginning to worry.
Her ex-boyfriend’s sister and record executive Carole Curb said, “She weighed 110 pounds or so, and looked amazing.” Adding, “If she’d been able to stop there, then life would have been beautiful."
Karen Hides Her Obsession
She dropped to 90 pounds. At 5-foot-4, she had looked great at 120 pounds. With thirty pounds less, she started to look unhealthy. Family and friends became concerned and hounded her to eat more. Karen responded by bundling up to hide her extra weight loss.
In 1975, her agent, Sherwin Bash, noticed and said, “She would start with a long-sleeved shirt and then put a blouse over that and a sweater over that and a jacket over that.” Bash continued, ‘With all of it, you had no idea of what she had become.”
Fans Start to Show Concern
Karen’s attempts at masking her emaciated frame fooled no one. Fans became so alarmed they approached the Carpenters’ agent about the singer’s condition. Worried she might be dying of cancer, or some other fatal illness, fans questioned Bash. Ironically, they were right, she was dying of a fatal illness. But no one knew what it was.
Her physical appearance was so shocking that, occasionally, an audible gasp from the audience greeted Karen when she took the stage. One critic, obviously confused, praised her entrance from the drums to the mic, but then said, “She is terribly thin, almost a wraith, and should be gowned more becomingly.” One acquaintance said she looked like “a Holocaust victim.”