SHE has long fought to clear her name after being wrongfully convicted of the horrific murder of Meredith Kercher.
But now Amanda Knox‘s career since the brutal 2007 slaying is being questioned by the Brit’s heartbroken family, who have accused her of repeatedly seeking to profit from the tragedy.
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Since being released from prison in 2011, the American has certainly fuelled fascination around the case, appearing in a 2016 Netflix documentary and being paid a reported £3.5million for her autobiography.
But neither were her final words on matters, with a controversial new Disney TV series sparking fresh fury this week.
The eight-part Hulu drama, Amanda: A Coming Of Age Horror Story, focusses on Knox’s “16-year odyssey to set herself free” and has begun filming in the medieval town of Perugia, Italy, where Kercher was killed by drifter Rudy Guede.
Produced by in part by Amanda herself, it has led to Meredith’s family, from South London, making a rare statement about their heartbreaking loss.
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Sister Stephanie said: “Meredith will always be remembered for her own fight for life, and yet in her absence, her love and personality continue to shine.
“Our family has been through so much and it is difficult to understand how this serves any purpose.”
In an extraordinary broadside, the family’s lawyer, Francesco Maresca, went further, saying: “On the one hand Amanda says the trial created so much suffering for her but then she tries to have it all – the fame and the money.
“She continues to make money from it. This time she has no qualms about doing it in Perugia, one of the least appropriate places to return to 17 years since Meredith’s death.
“Knox is only interested in the profits she continues to make from an affair on which she should be silent.”
Alongside the series, which has been co-produced by Monica Lewinsky, Amanda is releasing a new book in March, entitled Free.
She has found plenty of other ways to stay in the spotlight, too, including stand-up shows, podcasts and even a £100 wellness app.
But that will be of little comfort to the Kerchers, from South London, who continue to fight for answers over what really led to the tragic death of 21-year-old student Meredith.
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Right from the start, Amanda’s striking behaviour has garnered attention.
After Meredith’s bruised and cut dead body was found in her flat in Perugia, the American and her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were brought in for questioning.
In the police station, she was initially reported to have done cartwheels, which she denied. She later explained: “I never did a cartwheel. I did do the splits … once.”
Rudy Guede, 37, from the Ivory Coast, along with Knox and Sollecito were found guilty of Meredith’s murder.
After four years in jail Knox and Sollecito were released after successfully appealing against their conviction in 2011, but they were convicted again in 2014 before this ruling was overturned again a year later.
The main case against them had been that drug dealer Guede, who continues to protest his innocence, could not have acted alone.
Re-tell therapy
Italian Sollecito wrote a book about his ordeal, having spent six months in solitary confinement, but his social media account is private and he rarely gives interviews.
Amanda, on the other hand, uses her Instagram account, with 119,000 followers, to highlight her latest projects – many of which are linked to what happened to Meredith.
Last month she posted: “13 years ago today, I came home from an Italian prison. I was technically ‘free,’ but I didn’t feel that way.
“It’s taken me over a decade to make meaning out of my misfortune – the subject of my new book, FREE. I hope it will be a light for anyone who feels trapped in their own life. PREORDER now via the link in my bio.”
On the account, she also advertises her stand-up comedy shows, her Labyrinths podcast – which she does with her husband Christopher Robinson – and to plugs products such as eco-friendly laundry detergent.
Knox is only interested in the profits she continues to make from an affair on which she should be silent
Kercher lawyer Francesco Maresca
Away from Instagram, she has her own website, amandaknox.com, where she pitches for work as “a remarkable speaker” whose topics include “post-traumatic growth”.
On top of that, she has a “resilience app”, which will set you back £100 a year to discover “the practices and traditions she’s turned to over the years to discover a deeper, more enduring wellspring of equanimity and strength.”
In 2019, she came under criticism for crowd-funding her outer space-themed wedding, requesting donations of up to £8,000 in return for poetry.
However, Amanda has argued that she needed the money from her first memoirs to pay the legal fees run up by her defence team and claims she wasn’t paid for the Netflix documentary.
She is also a campaigner about wrongful convictions, working with the Innocence Project in the United States.
Cruel trolls
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Amanda remains angry about the way she was portrayed in the days after Meredith’s murder, writing in 2021: “People liked the story – the psychotic man-eater, the dirty ice queen, Foxy Knoxy.”
And despite having twice been cleared of the killing, she still receives cruel comments.
Three years ago, she had a daughter Eureka with Chrstopher, who she wed in 2018.
But she revealed trolls say things like: “Are you going to murder your baby?”
However, her own comments could be more sensitive too, with Amanda seemingly making jokes about the case.
Recently on Instagram she posted an image of a broken plant pot next to her cat with the caption: “Whodunnit? #itwasntme”.
The Disney Plus drama, which is being filmed now, is certain to put the spotlight back on Amanda.
Grace Van Patten, from Tell Me Lies, will portray Amanda in the series and Irish actress Sharon Horgan will play her mum, Edda Mellas.
The Substance star Margaret Qualley was originally going to take the Knox role, but scheduling conflicts meant she had to pull out.
The drama has been co-produced by Monica Lewinsky, who found herself the subject of global attention after former US President Bill Clinton had sexual relations with her.
Monica and Amanda are said to be “very close” because they “have a lot in common and support each other.”
Forgotten victim
The Disney drama is not the first production about Meredith’s murder.
British director Michael Winterbottom’s movie The Face of an Angel in 2014, starring Cara Delevingne, was loosely based on the case.
In it Daniel Bruhl plays a director investigating a murder in Italy, but there is little time for the victim.
The Kercher family attempted to address this longstanding imbalance with her journalist dad John Kercher writing a book titled Meredith in 2013 about “our heart-breaking quest for the truth”.
He died in February 2020 aged 77 having raised doubts in the book about the Italian investigation.
John said there was “the stark possibility that we might never have a satisfactory picture of what unfolded in Perugia on that terrible November night.”
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