Amanda Knox moans how her ‘unimaginable fling’ with Italian lover Raffaele Sollecito was ‘very a lot minimize quick’ by Meredith Kercher’s homicide
Amanda Knox has been savaged by Instagram critics after she complained that her ‘incredible fling’ with an Italian lover was cut short – because she was arrested over the murder of Meredith Kercher.
She told Interview magazine she was ‘100 per cent pro a summer fling’ and lamented that it was ‘tragic’ that her romance with Raffaele Sollecito, her co-accused in Ms Kercher’s murder, was ‘very much cut short’.
Knox and Sollecito were arrested and charged with the murder of Leeds student Ms Kercher, 21, who was found dead on the floor of her room in Perugia, Italy in November 2007, her body bruised and her throat cut.
It was Knox, then 20, who had discovered Kercher’s bedroom door locked and blood in their bathroom, but after police in Italy noticed her acting oddly she became a suspect.
American student Knox would later say she had been forced to implicate both herself and Patrick Lumumba, the owner of a bar she worked at under pressure and threat from Italian police. Mr Lumumba was released without charge.
An Ivorian migrant, Rudy Guede, was arrested after his bloodied fingerprints were found at the scene; he was convicted of the murder and sexual assault of Ms Kercher, and was released from prison in November 2021.
But the now 37-year-old and her Italian lover were also initially convicted of the murder in 2009 – amid a global media frenzy.
The press dubbed her ‘Foxy Knoxy’ and Italian prosecutors suggested the 21-year-old had been killed in a sex game gone wrong.
Amanda Knox has lamented that her ‘incredible fling’ with Raffaele Sollecito (above, with Knox) was ‘cut short’ when they were arrested over the murder of Meredith Kercher
Ms Kercher, an exchange student from Leeds, was found dead in a house in Italy in 2007 with bruises and her throat cut
Ms Knox was the subject of intense media scrutiny at the time of the trial (pictured 2011), as Italian prosecutors sought to prove that Ms Kercher died in a sex game gone wrong
Knox spent a total of four years behind bars after being convicted of murder, sexual violence and faking a break-in while she and Sollecito, 23 at the time, fought to clear their names.
Following a retrial, both were ultimately acquitted in 2015. The European Court of Human Rights found that the police deprived her of a lawyer and provided a translator who acted more as a mediator, breaching her rights.
Knox said to Interview of her fling with Sollecito: ‘I am 100 per cent pro a summer fling, especially when you’re young and discovering yourself.
‘And you know what? Raffaele was an incredible fling. I think one of the many, many tragic things about the story is that Raffaele’s and my romance was very much cut short.’
The interview in the Andy Warhol-founded magazine also discussed her relationship with true crime media (‘complicated’), Italian food and prison food, studying abroad (‘still pro’) and the court of public opinion.
‘No rules exist in the court of public opinion and therefore it is the wild west and very, very brutal and capricious,’ said Knox, who is now a mother-of-two.
Interview posted an excerpt the article to its Instagram, where the story was given a withering reception.
‘Totally sucks your summer fling was cut short bc you were arrested for your roommate’s murder,’ said one commenter.
I’ve never believed that she committed the crime… but she never seems to put a spotlight on her murdered roommate,’ said another.
‘It always seems to be musings about her relationship or lost youth. Now as a mother you would think her empathy would give her a different perspective on the loss of that young girl.’
Knox’s comments about her ‘cut short’ summer fling were shared on Interview Magazine’s Instagram – to a dismal reception
Rudy Guede, an Ivorian migrant, was found to have been responsible for the murder and sexual assault of Meredith Kercher and served 13 years in prison
Meredith Kercher had been living in Perugia, Italy on an exchange scheme from the University of Leeds
She became known as ‘Foxy Knoxy’ during the trial amid intense media interest in the killing
Raffaele Sollecito pictured in 2011. He was also exonerated of the killing in 2015 after the murder was pinned on Rudy Guede by way of DNA evidence
The house in Perugia where Meredith Kercher had been living – and where she was ultimately found dead
The American was also convicted of slander after implicating bar owner Mr Lumumba in the killing.
It was upheld after an appeal last summer, and following a ruling by Italy’s highest court in January. She maintains she is innocent.
Since being released she has since written two books about, as the blurb for one describes, ‘the story of her personal growth and hard-fought wisdom’.
The latter, Free: My Search for Meaning, promises to recount the ‘gripping saga’ of her internment while under suspicion of murdering British student Ms Kercher, whose name does not appear in the autobiography’s publicity materials.
Ms Kercher’s family lawyer, Francesco Maresca, has said of the new tome: ‘It seems the initiatives of Knox continue to be inappropriate and disrespectful towards the memory of Meredith.
‘It’s evident that for Knox the Perugia trial continues to be a source of income and a series of opportunities to maintain her name in the media. Ms Knox, after so many years, should respect the silence and memory.’
She nevertheless maintains that she is ‘haunted’ by Ms Kercher’s spirit, in a ‘benevolent’ way, ‘reminding me of the value of life’.
She told People magazine this month: ‘Any expression of life in my life is seen as an offense to the memory of my friend who got murdered.’
Elsewhere, she has recently claimed she was ‘groped’ by a prison guard and forced to strip naked while she was held on remand over Ms Kercher’s death.
She has also detailed her unlikely friendship with Giuliano Mignini, the Italian prosecutor who fought to have her locked up in the first place.
Patrick Lumumba, who owned a bar where Knox worked, was falsely implicated in Meredith Kercher’s death by Knox, who has a slander conviction to her name as a result
Amanda Knox is now a mother-of-two, and records a podcast on ‘getting lost and finding your way again’ with her husband
Knox told the Guardian they now share personal news, family photographs and send holiday greetings to each other, after developing a friendship.
But her real reason for the improbable friendship is to try to extract a confession from him that he got it wrong.
Mignini, now 74, still maintains that at the time he was prosecuting her he believed she was guilty.
She had initially been jailed for 26 years for her alleged part in the student’s death, until DNA evidence placed Guede, a known petty crook, at the scene.
Guede has since been investigated by Italian police over allegations he abused a former partner. He, however, claims he has been persecuted by police since the killing.
He said on social media last year: ‘In a case where investigations are still ongoing, where checks are being made, where the person under investigation has not yet been sent to trial, he is condemned to a media pillory.’
Knox and Sollecito have met up several times since they were cleared of Ms Kercher’s murder, while Knox returned to the US in 2011 and now campaigns on behalf of the wrongly convicted.
She and her husband Christopher Robinson now record a podcast, Labyrinths, described as telling ‘stories of getting lost and the resilience and personal growth it takes to find your way again’.
She told the Guardian of her reason for continuing to speak about her wrongful conviction: ‘People say, why are you continuing to tell your story? Why are you continuing to elevate and platform yourself?
And to that I would simply say, “Because this is my story. This is all I have, and I think that it’s valuable – not just valuable to me, it’s valuable to other people.”‘
