1987–present
Latest News: The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox Debuts on Hulu
Grace Van Patten’s portrayal of Amanda Knox in a new Hulu limited series is getting rave reviews from an important critic: Knox herself.
The first two episodes of The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox are now streaming, with six additional parts set to debut weekly through October 1. Knox, the American woman twice convicted and acquitted of killing her roommate Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2007, serves as an executive producer along with Monica Lewinsky.
Knox said she had “chills” watching the 28-year-old lead actor Van Patten in the show, which follows the many twists of her legal saga and her effort to fully clear her name. The pair embraced during a series premiere event on August 19 in New York City.
“Someone recently said that what happened is someone stole my sparkle. They didn’t just steal my freedom, they stole my sparkle,” Knox, 38, told People. “And seeing [Van Patten] bring it back again—I’m just so grateful to her, that she’s honored that for me.
“Not just me. Everyone I know who has seen this has just been like, ‘How did she do that? How?’ She is incredible,” Knox added.
Who Is Amanda Knox?
Amanda Knox is an American author, podcaster, and public speaker who was twice convicted and acquitted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher while studying aboard in Italy. Kercher, a British student, was found stabbed to death in their shared apartment in November 2007. Police quickly zeroed in on Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who were both found guilty. In October 2011, Knox and Sollecito were acquitted and set free, having served four years in prison. The criminal saga continued with another conviction and acquittal in 2015 that closed the murder case against Knox, though she was found guilty of slandering her former boss in connection to Kercher’s killing. Knox has written two memoirs about her life and executive produced the 2025 show The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Amanda Marie Knox
BORN: July 9, 1987
BIRTHPLACE: Seattle, Washington
SPOUSE: Christoper Robinson (2018–present)
CHILDREN: Eureka and Echo
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer
Early Life
Amanda Marie Knox was born on July 9, 1987, in Seattle to Edda Mellas, a math teacher, and Curt Knox, a vice president of finance at Macy’s. Amanda has a younger sister, Deanna, and two step-sisters, Ashley and Delaney Knox. Her parents divorced when she was a toddler.
Growing up in a middle-class neighborhood, Amanda played soccer and her athletic skill earned her the nickname “Foxy Knoxy,” according to her parents. It was a nickname that would come back to haunt her years later.
In 2005, Knox graduated from Seattle Preparatory High School. She entered the University of Washington that fall, planning to pursue a degree in linguistics.
Studying Abroad in Italy
By all appearances, Knox was an ordinary college student. She threw loud parties, was named to the Dean’s List, and worked several jobs to pay her tuition. Friends recall her as a kind, gentle individual.
To further pursue her linguistics degree, the 20-year-old Knox left Washington and headed for Perugia, Italy, where she planned to spend a year at the University for Foreigners. In Perugia, Knox roomed with Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old student from London. Kercher was also studying linguistics abroad for a year.
Soon after she arrived in Perugia, Knox and Kercher attended a classical music concert. There, Knox met a 23-year-old Italian computer engineering student named Raffaele Sollecito. Knox and Sollecito began dating soon afterward.
Murder of Meredith Kercher
On November 1, 2007, Knox was supposed to work at a pub called Le Chic, where she had a part-time job. After her boss, Patrick Lumumba, sent her a text message saying that she wasn’t needed, Knox went to Sollecito’s apartment for the night.
Knox and Sollecito reportedly returned to her apartment the next day around 12 p.m. and found the front door open, windows broken, and blood in the bathroom. Knox called Kercher’s phone, but there was no answer. She then called their third roommate. Finally, Knox called her mother in Seattle, who told her to call the police.
Two officers with experience in investigating postal crimes, not murders, soon appeared at the scene. They entered the apartment to investigate and kicked down the door to Kercher’s bedroom. Inside, they found Kercher’s body on the floor, covered in a duvet that was soaked in blood.
Knox and Sollecito were taken to the police station, and for five days, they were interrogated. Knox later said no interpreter was present and that she was bullied and beaten while in police custody. Although her mother urged her to flee the country, Knox chose to stay in Perugia, wanting to meet Kercher’s family.
Finally, Sollecito admitted Knox could have left his apartment at night while he was sleeping. When detectives presented this to Knox as an accusation, she broke down. Knox signed a confession saying she had returned to her apartment on the night of November 1 and had been standing in the next room while Lumumba stabbed Kercher to death.
On November 6, 2007, Italian police announced Kercher’s killers had been found, and Knox and Sollecito were arrested. Lumumba had an alibi: He was seen bartending at Le Chic on the night of the murder.
Two weeks later, a forensics lab reported the results of its examination of DNA evidence taken from the crime scene. The evidence didn’t point to Knox or Sollecito but rather Rudy Guede, a friend of the Italian men who lived in the apartment below Knox’s and Kerchner’s apartment. Guede had been accused of several burglaries but didn’t have any convictions on his record. He was immediately arrested in Germany and admitted to being at the murder scene but stated that he didn’t kill Kercher. He also stated that Knox and Sollecito weren’t involved.
Murder Trials and Acquittals
Knox’s arrest for Meredith Kercher’s murder began a nearly two-decade legal saga in Italian court for the American. Knox was found guilty in 2009 and was two years into her lengthy prison sentence when she was acquitted and set free. Then in March 2013, she was ordered to stand trial again for Kercher’s murder after Italy’s final court of appeal overturned her acquittal. A second murder conviction arrived in February 2014, this time with an even longer sentence. The next year, that conviction was also reversed. In total, she served four years in prison.
Despite her exonerations for the murder, Knox has been found guilty of slander in a related case. Her most recent appeal ended in an upheld conviction in January 2025.
First Conviction
Guede, who has maintained his innocence, opted for a fast-track trial. In October 2008, he was found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of Kercher. His original sentence of 30 years was later reduced to 16 years, and Guede was released in November 2021.
Knox and Sollecito chose to have a full trial and were tried together. The Perugian prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, painted a picture of Knox that shaped how the public saw her. He described a sex-crazed marijuana smoker who had dragged her boyfriend into a game of rough sex that ended in Kercher’s murder—even calling Knox a “she-devil.” On December 29, 2009, Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, and Sollecito to 25 years.
Knox’s family and many supporters, mostly American, protested the sentencing. With a beautiful young woman at its center, the case became an international sensation. Supporters criticized the Italian legal system, which they said had major flaws, and claimed Knox was discriminated against because she was American and because she was an attractive young woman.
First Acquittal
In April 2010, Knox’s and Sollecito’s lawyers filed appeals, contesting the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses. This time, forensic experts said that DNA used in the first trial was unreliable. In June 2011, the defense called a witness who testified that, in prison, Guede had said Knox and Sollecito weren’t involved in the murder. Knox and Sollecito had support in their appeal from the Idaho Innocence project, a legal organization that uses DNA testing to prove the innocence of wrongly convicted people.
On October 3, 2011, two years after their first trial, the murder convictions against Knox and Sollecito were overturned. Knox’s prior conviction for defaming Patrick Lumumba was upheld, and she was sentenced to a three-year term and fined. Upon the announcement of the verdict, reporters’ cameras caught Knox breaking into tears. Knox flew from Rome to London, then home to Seattle. Not long after returning home, Knox picked up her studies at the University of Washington, majoring in creative writing.
In a sharp turn of events in March 2013, Knox and Sollecito were both ordered to stand trial again for the murder of Kercher by the Italian Supreme Court. Italy’s final court of appeal, the Court of Cassation, had overturned their acquittals. Knox released a statement shortly after learning that she would again face trial for murder:
“It was painful to receive the news that the Italian Supreme Court decided to send my case back for revision when the prosecution’s theory of my involvement in Meredith’s murder has been repeatedly revealed to be completely unfounded and unfair,” she stated, adding, “I believe that any questions as to my innocence must be examined by an objective investigation and a capable prosecution. The prosecution responsible for the many discrepancies in their work must be made to answer for them, for Raffaele’s sake, my sake, and most especially for the sake of Meredith’s family. Our hearts go out to them.”
Second Trial
After the acquittals was overturned, the new trial began on September 30, 2013. Because the court in Perugia lacked the appropriate amount of space needed, the location of the second trial was in Florence, Italy, with Judge Alessandro Nencini overseeing the trial. Knox made no arrangements to attend any portion of the trial, while Sollecito attended the trial as it came to an end with a verdict.
A new piece of evidence, which was referred to as evidence 36-I, was examined in the trial. Evidence 36-I was a minuscule piece of material found on a kitchen knife that Italian prosecutors believed was used to kill Kercher. New testing didn’t find Kercher’s DNA on the knife, however, experts found traces of Knox’s DNA on its handle. Knox’s legal team used the finding in her defense. “It means that Amanda took the knife exclusively for cooking matters, to keep in the kitchen and to use it,” Knox’s defense lawyer Luca Maori told the Associated Press. “It is something very important. It is absurd to use it for a murder and put it back in the drawer.”
In a decision that created shockwaves around the globe in early February 2014, Knox and Sollecito were again found guilty of murdering Kercher, following nearly 12 hours of deliberation by an appeals court jury that concluded by upholding the lower court’s 2009 decision against Knox and her former boyfriend. Sollecito received a 25-year prison sentence while Knox, who was convicted of slander in addition to murder, was sentenced to 28½ years in prison.
“I am frightened and saddened by this unjust verdict,” Knox wrote of the verdict. “Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system. The evidence and accusatory theory do not justify a verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt... There has always been a marked lack of evidence.” The 26-year-old added: “This has gotten out of hand. Most troubling is that it was entirely preventable. I beseech those with the knowledge and authority to address and remediate the problems that worked to pervert the course of justice and waste the valuable resources of the system.”
Murder Case Closed
In March 2015, the Supreme Court of Italy overturned the 2014 convictions of Knox and Sollecito. This ruling was the final decision in the case against the two and more details on the court’s verdict were released in June. After learning about the verdict, Knox issued a statement, saying “I am tremendously relieved and grateful” for the court’s decision.
In January 2019, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, ruled that Italy had to pay Knox 18,400 euros ($20,000) for the failure to provide legal assistance and an independent interpreter when she was interrogated in the aftermath of the 2007 murder of her roommate.
Slander Conviction
While Knox was exonerated of Kercher’s killing, an Italian court reconvicted her of slander in June 2024 related to her initial testimony and signed confession accusing Lumumba, her former boss, of the murder. Knox has maintained she made those statements after a lengthy police interrogation without a translator or lawyer present. In October 2024, she told Reason, “my boss obviously was completely innocent and had nothing to do with this crime.”
Knox appealed the June 2024 verdict hoping to fully clear her name, but the country’s Supreme Court upheld the ruling in January 2025. Because of her prior time in Italian custody, she won’t serve an additional prison sentence.
Life Post-Trials: Books and Podcasts
After returning home, Knox finished her degree and began working as a freelance journalist. She wrote Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir, a best-selling book about her experience that was released in 2013. She reportedly received $4 million for her memoir, but much of that money went toward covering accrued legal fees.
More recently in March 2025, Knox released a second book titled Free: My Search for Meaning that focuses on how she rebuilt her identity and life in wake of her acquittals. The memoir offered new details of her four years spent in prison, with Knox revealing she sang Beatles songs, read multiple books per week, and studied an Italian-language dictionary to pass the time.
In addition to her writing career, Knox appears at events for the Innocence Project, which advocates for people who have been wrongfully imprisoned. She agreed to speak at the Criminal Justice Festival in Modena, Italy, in June 2019. “The Italy Innocence Project didn’t yet exist when I was wrongly convicted in Perugia,” she wrote on Twitter. “I’m honored to accept their invitation to speak to the Italian people at this historic event and return to Italy for the first time.”
Knox is also a podcaster. She and her husband launched Labyrinths in October 2020. On the podcast, the co-hosts discuss their relationship and facilitate “compassionate interviews, philosophical rants, and playful debate with fascinating people.” They have released more than 115 episodes as of March 2025. Knox previously collaborated with SundanceTV for five seasons of The Truth About True Crime podcast, which examined Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre among other cases.
Husband and Children
Knox celebrated her marriage to longtime boyfriend Christopher Robinson in a Renaissance and Star Wars-themed wedding on February 29, 2020. The pair originally obtained a marriage license on December 1, 2018. “We filed paperwork to be legally married in December of last year to simplify our taxes and insurance,” Knox stated in a press release in August 2019.
The couple have two children together: a daughter named Eureka, born in August 2021, and a son named Echo, born in September 2023.
Knox was previously engaged to childhood friend and musician Colin Sutherland in 2015, but the couple later split.
Netflix Documentary and Hulu Show
In 2016, Netflix released a documentary movie, simply titled Amanda Knox, that featured interviews with Knox, herself, and other key figures from the case.
In March 2024, Hulu announced it was working on an eight-episode dramatized series about Knox’s case with actor Margaret Qualley set to portray the acquitted murderer. Qualley ultimately dropped out of the show, originally titled Blue Moon, on account of scheduling conflicts and was replaced by Grave Van Patten.
The series debuted as The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox in August 2025, with Knox and Monica Lewinsky serving as executive producers. Per The Hollywood Reporter, filming in Perugia, Italy, sparked backlash among some locals and Meredith Kercher’s family.
Watch Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy on Lifetime Movie Club
Quotes
- This has gotten out of hand. Most troubling is that it was entirely preventable. I beseech those with the knowledge and authority to address and remediate the problems that worked to pervert the course of justice and waste the valuable resources of the system.
- Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system. The evidence and accusatory theory do not justify a verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt... There has always been a marked lack of evidence.
- I believe that any questions as to my innocence must be examined by an objective investigation and a capable prosecution. The prosecution responsible for the many discrepancies in their work must be made to answer for them, for Raffaele’s sake, my sake, and most especially for the sake of Meredith’s family. Our hearts go out to them.
- I have never been put in a position of doubting my own sanity like I was in the hands of those police officers.
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