Fans of Ariana Grande, 33, have expressed alarm over her frail appearance in the music video for her song Petal, with many drawing comparisons to the late Karen Carpenter, who died of complications from anorexia in 1983. Grande has previously asked fans not to comment on her body, and the Petal video is itself a piece of social commentary on the pressure to conform to Hollywood's beauty standards.
It has been 43 years since Karen Carpenter died of cardiac arrest at age 32 after suffering from anorexia. Her death has been blamed on ignorance about eating disorders at the time, pressure to maintain a wholesome, family-friendly image, and denial by those around her.
Fans now fear history could repeat itself with Grande, after her team publicly described her as "happy and healthy" despite her noticeable weight loss in recent years. Both Grande's and Carpenter's names began trending on social media following Petal's release. Shortly after, Grande's spokesman announced she had pulled out of an upcoming West End role and would take a break from the spotlight amid "ongoing public scrutiny" over her appearance. Neither Grande nor her team has directly addressed fan concerns that she may be suffering from an eating disorder.
On X, fans wrote: "Hope Ariana Grande doesn't end up becoming this era's Karen Carpenter," and "We're watching Karen Carpenter 2.0 and everyone's too afraid of being 'cancelled' to actually say the truth." Another wrote: "This generation should learn from what happened to Karen Carpenter and how it relates to Ariana Grande." One fan called the situation "sort of snake eating its own tale," referencing the film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, and warned that Grande's "body will be picked apart endlessly, under the guise of (not unfounded) concern."
Karen Carpenter's decline
Carpenter is widely considered the first celebrity to die publicly from an eating disorder. Fans watched her frame shrink and saw her collapse on stage repeatedly, but her condition was blamed on "exhaustion." In a 1981 Nationwide television interview, when she weighed 91 pounds, Carpenter was asked point blank whether she had anorexia nervosa. She responded only that she was "pooped." Later that year she confided in her older brother Richard, telling him: "I realise I'm sick and I need help." She then began treatment in New York with psychotherapist Steven Levenkron.
According to Lucy O'Brien's biography, Lead Sister: The Story of Karen Carpenter, Levenkron discovered Carpenter was ingesting more than 90 Dulcolax laxative pills at once, as well as 10 pills a day of the thyroid medication Synthroid, which sped up her metabolism. O'Brien wrote that Levenkron was "horrified" and confiscated the bottle, warning that overdosing on the thyroid medication could cause coma, convulsions or heart attacks.
By September 1982, Carpenter noticed her heart was "beating funny" and was admitted to intensive care at Lenox Hill Hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side. She weighed 77 pounds, was severely dehydrated, and had a life-threatening blood potassium level of 1.8. Her digestive tract was so damaged she had to be fed by intravenous drip. Over the following seven weeks she gained 20 pounds. On October 28, from her hospital room, she signed a petition for divorce from Thomas James Burris, whom she had married in 1980.
By November 1982, weighing 100 pounds, Carpenter concluded her therapy with Levenkron, three years earlier than he had recommended, presenting him with a needlepoint canvas reading "YOU WIN, I GAIN." In February 1983 she died of cardiac arrest. Two years later, a coroner told colleagues her heart failure was caused by repeated use of ipecac syrup, an over-the-counter emetic drug.
Other celebrities speak out
After Carpenter's death, other public figures shared their own struggles with anorexia and bulimia, most notably Princess Diana. Actress Jameela Jamil and model Charli Howard, both of whom have disclosed their own eating disorders, have urged Grande's team to intervene over her appearance.
Howard wrote on social media that "WHAT YOU SEE HERE IS NOT NORMAL," describing seeing comments from worried fans alongside others insisting Grande looks "healthy" or has simply "lost puppy fat." She called it "absolutely appalling, from both a moral and capitalistic standpoint," to release videos and an album "when this person needs psychiatric help and hospitalisation," adding that "the teams involved should be absolutely ashamed."
Jamil responded in agreement, writing: "This poor woman is possibly dying right in front of us. This outfit is designed to accentuate the thinness for discourse," and adding that Grande's "team are thoroughly irresponsible for not guiding her away from this deeply damaging image for her young fans to see so glamorized." After backlash accusing her of commenting inappropriately on another woman's body, Jamil clarified that she felt "extremely bad for Ariana having almost died of anorexia myself."
In a further Instagram Story post, Jamil wrote that anorexia is the deadliest of any mental health disorder, and argued it would be "deeply irresponsible for all the people involved to deliver this aesthetic as glamorous to the many billions of girls and women consuming this imagery." She compared the reaction to images of a starving child in Gaza, writing that "we do not pretend then that it is not appropriate to comment on how thin they are," and added: "Silence is complicity when it gets this far. Look at Karen Carpenter."
Ariana Grande's team responds
Amid the public discourse, Grande's spokesman told PEOPLE that she "will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour," and looked forward to "finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily," before taking "a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances," which the spokesman said had led to "endless, ongoing public scrutiny." A source close to Grande said her tour involves a physically demanding, athletic performance that she carries out at a healthy level.
The Eternal Sunshine Tour is set to wrap in London on September 1, after which Grande will retreat from public life. She had been due to star in the musical Sunday in the Park with George, reuniting with her Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey, but has since exited the project.
Grande addresses the break on tour
The following day, performing in Chicago, Illinois, Grande told the crowd the hiatus had been planned for a long time. "It was not a reactive or impulsive thing," she said. "It is something that I have decided, a plan that I had quietly made a long time ago and it's a decision that was made from a thoughtful and empowered place." She added: "Multiple things can be true at the same time. Yes, boundaries can need to be set. Human beings can need a break sometimes." She told fans that "nothing will ever be able to distort my reality or be more real to me or louder to me than this love that we share in this room."
Readers struggling with an eating disorder in the UK can contact Beat on 0808 801 0677. In the US, the National Eating Disorders Association can be reached at [email protected].
