Amanda Knox to perform stand-up comedy routine about wrongful imprisonment at Edinburgh Fringe

Amanda Knox will be performing a stand-up comedy show at Edinburgh Fringe about her wrongful imprisonment for the murder of Meredith Kercher.

In 2007, British foreign exchange student Ms Kercher was killed in Perugia, Italy. Her American roommate Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested and later convicted of murder and sexual assault in 2009.

The couple maintained their innocence and, after years of legal battles, were acquitted of sexual assault and murder by Italy’s highest court in 2015.

Just over a decade on, Ms Knox is now set to share her story on stage.

Now 39, she is married with two children and lives on Vashon-Maury Island in rural Washington.

Ms Knox said she initially planned to make a show about motherhood – but was told by comedian friends she had to “address the elephant in the room”.

Her comedy show’s title Cartwheel references a story that once claimed she did cartwheels in the police station after her friend’s death.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Ms Knox said she did not believe there were any topics off bounds for comedy, but insisted she would not poke fun at Ms Kercher’s death.

“I don’t joke about Meredith’s death. I joke a lot about how I was vilified, but I don’t joke about her murder. That’s just a line for me. I set red lines for myself that other comedians don’t. I’ve had other comedians pitch me jokes that I just would not do,” she said.

Asked about whether her loved ones were concerned about backlash to the show, she referred to a gag she says on stage: “My friends and family are actually really nervous for me, despite my spotless record in the court of public opinion.”

However, The Telegraph has reported that Ms Kercher’s relatives, according to their lawyer Francesco Maresca, have called the idea of the show “offensive and deplorable”.

Ms Knox said: “If they reached out to me and actually communicated with me for the first time ever, I would absolutely want to talk to them. Something that is an unresolved wound for me is the fact that I have never been able to talk to them. I assume they still assume that I’m guilty. I would very much want to establish that kind of communication, but I’m not going to have my life dictated by what they want for me.”

She added: “We share a grief, and we both knew a real person who died, and who primarily belongs to them, but I’m a person too. I have the life that I have lived, and I have the right to tell my own story, and Meredith is a big part of that story. And I think I honour her.”

Ms Knox said that she believed Ms Kercher would “appreciate the show because it grapples with what it means to be a young woman, and it is honest”, adding that she thought her late roommate would have found it “funny”.

Ms Knox has previously shared her story in documentaries, an eight-part TV drama she produced with Monica Lewinsky, and books.

Rudy Hermann Guede was convicted of Ms Kercher’s murder in 2008. He was released from prison in 2021 after serving 13 years of a 16-year term.