Amanda Knox to perform stand-up comedy show at Edinburgh Fringe on wrongful imprisonment

Amanda Knox is set to perform a stand-up comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe, focusing on her wrongful imprisonment for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

Ms Kercher was killed in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested and convicted of murder and sexual assault in 2009.

The couple consistently maintained their innocence, and after years of legal battles, Italy’s highest court acquitted them of all charges in 2015.

Just over a decade on, Ms Knox, now 39, married with two children and residing on Vashon-Maury Island in rural Washington, is preparing to share her story on stage.

She revealed that while her initial plan was a show about motherhood, comedian friends urged her that 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-limits 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.