US3 min(s) read
Published 13:56 08 Aug 2026 GMT
Amanda Knox, who was acquitted of the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher, has defended her upcoming comedy show after being accused of making light of the crime.
Knox is most well-known for her conviction of the murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy in 2007.
Jailed for the murder alongside her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, Knox was acquitted of the crimes and released in 2015. A third suspect, Rudy Guede, was found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of Kercher in a separate trial.
But Knox's attempt at a career re-brand in recent years has seen her move into the comedy space, and she's had to defend her recent Edinburgh Fringe show after accusations from Kercher's sister that it trivializes violence against women.
On Thursday, Knox posted on her official Instagram account informing her followers a bit more about the content of the show that she's putting on at the Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland.
In her post, Knox called the show, which is called Cartwheel, as something that "honors Meredith Kercher’s memory and calls out the violence that was done to her and to me."
Even the title of the show is a direct reflection of the Kercher case, a reference to a story at the time that Knox did cartwheels in the police station after Kercher's death. Debuting on Friday, the show is due to run for 11 nights.
Meredith Kercher's sister, Stephanie, then gave an interview to the BBC in which she decried Knox's decision to put on the show, saying it "normalizes and trivializes violence against women."
She went on to say: "It’s not about whether people think she’s guilty or innocent, if someone else was doing the show specifically against Meredith, I would still feel the same.
"It is obviously an added wound that it’s coming from her at the same time, but I do feel very strongly that it should be something that’s not given a platform."
However, Knox has defended her decision to put the show on, saying that "a petition to cancel a show no one has seen, on the grounds of false accusations intended to shame and vilify a wronged woman into silence, is not an argument against Cartwheel.”
British student Meredith Kercher was living in Puglia, Italy, on exchange from the University of Leeds at the time of her death.
Kercher's body was found on the floor of her bedroom in the apartment she shared with Knox, covered with a duvet.
Suspicion initially fell on Knox and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. They were arrested, plead not guilty but were found guilty of murder at a trial in 2009.
A third suspect, Ivorian migrant Rudy Guere, was tried in 2008 after his fingeprints were found at the scene. By the time Guere's bloodstained fingerprints were found, police had already charged Knox and Sollecito.
In 2015, the case against Knox and Sollecito was dissolved. Guere began serving a 16 year sentence for Kercher's murder, but was released from prison in November 2021.
