Emotional Howard Carpendale: “All my family are no longer alive”

Howard Carpendale saw people in his family die early. Now he talks about how he dealt with grief.

He is one of the most successful singers in Schlager and has just appeared again with Florian Silbereisen (43) and his “Schlagerboom“. Howard Carpendale (78) looks back on a wonderful career and has started a wonderful family. But most of his relatives died soon. In a new interview, the “Goodbye again” interpreter talks about his family’s tragic history.

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Howard Carpendale: “My whole family is no longer alive”

“My childhood was really a dream,” said Howie, who grew up in South Africa, in an interview with “Bild am Sonntag” about apartheid in our country. Fortunately, as a little boy, I had no idea what that meant.” He describes his parents as “wonderful people.” But they were taken from him at a young age.

“My whole family is no longer alive,” is his sad conclusion. “They all died young – except for my mother. My father died at the age of 59. Anne, my sister who was four years older than me, suffered from diabetes. She lived to be 45. Jean, who was eight years older than me, died in a car accident.”

However, Howard Carpendale, who has just lost 15 kilos, admits the connection wasn’t always the most personal. “It hits your soul,” he says of family losses, but adds: “I think there’s a difference between losing someone you’re with every day and someone you talk to on the phone.”

He continues: “Jean and Anne lived in Durban, I had already lived in England and Germany. I flew to their funerals, I stood by the coffin. It was tragic when my parents died.”

Carpendale: “To me, death is a part of life”

It is now a good 48 years since his father died. He died five days before Carpendale married his first wife Claudia. His parents were in England, on holiday. Then the musician’s father had a heart attack. “Claudia and I immediately flew to London and took a three-hour taxi ride to Southampton. But he was already dead when we got to the clinic.”

The wedding still went ahead as planned because his mother wanted it. She had dementia and died 13 years ago at the age of 92, says Carpendale, who will soon go on a farewell tour.

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