Sad And Tragic Details About Karen Carpenter

Karen Carpenter, one half of the brother-sister duo The Carpenters, and the velvet voice behind hits like "Close to You" and "Top of the World," enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame in the 1970s only to literally disappear before her fans' very eyes. This is the tragic real-life story of Karen Carpenter.

Karen Carpenter was born in 1950 in New Haven, Connecticut. Her family moved to Downey, California when she was 13-years-old. By then it was clear that her older brother, Richard, was a piano prodigy. It was also clear that he was their mother's favorite child. In an excerpt from the biography Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter, author Randy L. Schmidt suggests that Karen's struggle with both bulimia and anorexia was in part a direct response to knowing that her mother, Agnes, didn't really love her. Not like she loved Richard, anyway. Karen couldn't control her mother's affections, but she could control her food intake.

The Irish Independent makes clear that Agnes was more concerned with outward appearances than she was with Karen's mental health. In a therapy session following her first hospitalization for anorexia, Karen's family was asked to tell her they loved her. Her father and brother did so readily. Agnes, on the other hand, dodged the request and chastised the therapist for referring to her by her first name, a habit she considered tactless.

Watch the video to learn more about the sad and tragic details in the storied life of Karen Carpenter.

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Not her mother's favorite | 0:17
Under her brother's thumb | 1:22
An unbeatable battle | 2:18
Huge tour cancellation | 4:15
Not so true love | 5:24
Hounded by stalkers | 6:31
A tragic end | 7:25
Falling star | 8:23
Unworthy movies | 9:20
Cheated in death | 10:23