Latest news with #Kercher
News.com.au
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Sex, drugs, murder and injustice: Amanda Knox tells the real story behind THAT 2007 murder
We've sifted through the latest offerings from TV and streaming platforms to find the best shows you should be watching this week. THE TWISTED TALE OF AMANDA KNOX NEW EPISODES WEDNESDAYS, DISNEY+ It's understandable why Amanda Knox would want to make this eight-part retelling of her arrest, trial, conviction, demonisation and eventual exoneration for the 2007 murder of her British flatmate, Meredith Kercher, while studying in picturesque Perugia. The salacious story with sex, drugs and even Satanism that saw her dubbed Foxy Knoxy and spend four years in an Italian jail is absolutely hers to tell after all the indignities and injustices she suffered. Knox herself is on board as an executive producer for this well told dramatisation that draws from her books Waiting To Be Heard and Free and it's presented as her chance to correct her 'often mistold and madly twisted tale'. By the same token, the producers are at pains to point out that liberties have been taken with characters and timelines and that knowledge – after movies inspired by the case and a 2016 Netflix documentary – can make it sometimes uneasy viewing. Kercher's sister last year said it was 'difficult to understand' the purpose of series that puts the awfulness front and centre and again – and she has a point. JAMES WIGNEY Imagine coming home to find your apartment has been broken into and your housemate brutally slain. Now imagine your confusion and frustration as you are interrogated for hours – in a foreign language – by police who seem hell bent on proving you are a cold-blooded, sex-crazed killer. This new true crime drama offers almost visceral insights into the bewilderment of American student Amanda Knox as she finds herself wrongly accused of murdering her British friend Meredith Kercher in 2007. The trial, imprisonment and subsequent exoneration of Knox, which made headlines around the globe, are all detailed in this new series starring Grace Van Patten as Knox and Bad Sisters' creator Sharon Horgan as her devoted mum. Certainly, Knox is an imperfect victim. Her response to the tragedy – canoodling with her boyfriend at the crime scene, doing cartwheels in the police station and pointing the finger of blame at her boss during a 'confession' – is far from textbook. And that's partly what makes this series so compelling. SIOBHAN DUCK ADAM RICHMAN EATS FOOTBALL WEDNESDAY, 9PM, SBS FOOD It's not often you hear fine dining and football mentioned in the same sentence, but American celebrity chef and world game enthusiast Adam Richman is out to change that in this series that travels around the UK finding ways to combine the two. His first stop is East London, home to West Ham United, a traditionally working class area that's been gentrified and now has the culinary choices to prove it. From scoffing a pie and mash made from an 80-year-old recipe to sampling fancy wood pigeon on an up-market barge – and of course a match day curry – Richman looks like he's having an absolute ball. Coming episodes will take him to Nottingham, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR V MANCHESTER CITY SATURDAY, 9.30PM, CHANNEL 9, 9NOW What a joy to see the English Premier League back on free-to-air television with a game each week (the rest is on Stan, live or on demand). London club Tottenham Hotspur began its post Ange Postecoglou era in style last week with a convincing win over 3-0 win over Burnley, while the Manchester City machine also fired up early with 4-0 belting of Wolverhampton Wolves that sent them straight to the top of the table. Having won six of the last eight titles, City underperformed by their own lofty standards last season, so fans will be expecting a better showing to wrest the top dog status back from arch rivals Liverpool. ROME UNDERGROUND SUNDAY, 7.30PM, SBS If you think any of the recent underground rail projects in Australia have been complicated, try digging holes in a city where hidden, ancient treasures lurk underneath just about every street. That's the dilemma facing the engineers and archaeologists tasked with constructing a much needed extension to a rail line in the Eternal City, where nearly 3000 years of history are stacked on top of each other and only 10 per cent has been excavated. While trying to improve access to tourist hotspots such as the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia, they discover huge barracks with delicate mosaics and frescoes, and never-before-seen auditoriums and private houses, and have to figure out a way to balance the lessons of the past with progress. AMERICA'S TEAM: THE GAMBLER AND HIS COWBOYS NETFLIX With the new NFL season just over two weeks away, American football lovers can kick off a little early with this seven-part series on the rollercoaster ride that was Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s. Renegade owner Jerry Jones took over the popular Texas franchise known as 'America's Team' in 1989 and sacked its beloved two-time Super Bowl winning coach Tom Landry in favour of his firebrand friend Jimmy Johnson. Together they assembled a team of superstars that would dominate the decade with three championships – despite a string of scandals – and help turn it into a $9 billion juggernaut. Key players including Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith – aka the Triplets – are interviewed along with high-profile guests such as former President George W. Bush and Nike co-founder Phil Knight. I, JACK WRIGHT SUNDAY, 8.55PM, ABC There are mysteries and mayhem aplenty in this pulpy six-part UK drama about an already volatile family thrown into further turmoil after the apparent suicide of its patriarch. The title character is a thrice-married hard man, who has pulled himself up by the bootstraps to preside over a 100 million pound brick business. But when he's found dead on his country estate, seemingly with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, his wives, children, in-laws, colleagues and staff are all left wondering what will happen to his fortune. After gathering to see the old boy off at a boozy wake, the will reading that follows is nothing short of explosive, setting the stage for a family battle royal, while the cops investigate whether everything is as it seems. OUTBACK TRUCKERS TUESDAY, 8PM, 7MATE Driving an enormous beast of a vehicle through the parched Aussie interior sounds like my idea of a nightmare, but there's something strangely compelling about watching these resourceful and resilient pros performing an essential service in the toughest of conditions and weighing up the cost of time away from family. There's veteran Steve, who is dragging an excavator through 1000km of blistering heat and rutted roads to an amethyst mine. Mike is delivering much needed firefighting equipment to a remote community, and performing emergency surgery on his malfunctioning rig. And Sludge is on the comeback trail after an accident and feeling the pressure to turn up on time for a very short shutdown window of the only rail line between the east and west sides of the country. KILLER WHALE: AUSTRALIA'S MEGAPOD TUESDAY, 8.30PM, ABC Killer whales are all too often painted as the villains of nature docos – the bullies of the sea who bump adorable seals off slabs of ice or gang up to hunt down playful dolphins. And yes, they are absolutely partial to a sea lion snack or a cetacean canape, but they are also extraordinary and fascinating creatures with complex social structures and methods of communication. This outstanding documentary, narrated by Richard Roxburgh, follows a couple of orca experts operating out of Bremer Bay in Western Australia as they track, tag and study a community of the ocean's apex predators and make some extraordinary discoveries about an animal that developed a complex brain 30 million years before we did. TENDING – PRINCES OF THE PALACE Whether it's the revelation a jealous Prince Andrew made snarky comments about Kate Middleton or cringey home videos of Harry and Meghan Markle bumping and grinding in the delivery suite, the spare heirs keep making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Having weathered Andrew's car crash interview with Emily Maitlis and Harry's biography Spare, the Palace is now dealing with the fallout of Andrew Lownie's biography Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York which digs up more dirt on Randy Andy. Some of the lesser known the antics of Andrew, Harry and the House of Windsor's other menfolk are also detailed in this salacious 2016 documentary.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Amanda Knox knows she's the story. It took motherhood to want to tell it on her own terms.
"For better or for worse, I'm carrying her legacy alongside mine," Knox says of her former roommate Meredith Kercher. Most people reconnect with former classmates at milestone reunions. Maybe they meet for an occasional coffee when they're back in their hometown. When I saw Amanda Knox for the first time since our high school graduation, our reconnection was a little different. There we were, talking face-to-face over Zoom about Hulu's new scripted series The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, inspired by 16 pivotal years of her life. Knox was keeping a low profile when our 10-year reunion came around in Seattle in 2015, afraid to be in public spaces. She had just learned that Italy's high court would finally bring some closure to a case that began in 2007, when she was arrested on a charge of murder in the death of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, her roommate while studying abroad in Perugia. 'The first letters that I ever got in prison were from people from [our high school],' she tells me, her voice softening as we begin our conversation. 'I'm going to get emotional right now, because everyone else in my life — my parents, my college friends — they were all just like, 'Oh, Amanda's going to get out any day now.' But I think [our school] had this sort of established sense of how to respond to a crisis, and we're going to do it collectively. Like, we know this girl. To receive those messages when I was in the middle of this insane story that was blowing up around me? That was a huge relief.' To call her story insane is an understatement. Knox was convicted of murder and spent four years in prison before she was acquitted in 2011. The case took several twists: In 2014, an appeals court reversed that acquittal and reconvicted her. That second guilty verdict, for Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, was thrown out in 2015 by Italy's highest court, ending the legal saga. Rudy Guede, whose DNA was found at the crime scene, remains the only person convicted of Kercher's murder. Through it all, Knox says, her story was often misrepresented, both in the media and by the public. The Hulu series, which premieres on Aug. 20, is her attempt to tell it herself onscreen. The Lewinsky effect The series itself came together at a pivotal moment in Knox's life. She had just given birth to daughter Eureka in 2021 and was struggling with how to reconcile the trauma she had endured with her new role as a mother. 'I was sitting with this feeling of needing to be OK,' Knox says, explaining she had to confront her past to avoid 'consciously or unconsciously passing on this dark cloud that had been hovering over me onto my children.' (She also shares son Echo with husband Christopher Robinson.) She began corresponding with Giuliano Mignini, the lead prosecutor who worked for years to get both her and Sollecito locked up. The two have since formed an unlikely friendship, and Knox says she's forgiven him. This is a big plot point in The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, a show that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for a different, unexpected friendship Knox formed with Monica Lewinsky. Knox first met Lewinsky in 2017, when she was feeling 'very small and diminished' and that people still didn't believe in her innocence. The two bonded immediately. 'Monica had been reduced to a punch line, just like I had,' Knox says. 'Seeing how she emerged, speaking out, writing, advocating — it made me realize there was a path forward for my own story.' Lewinsky reached out to Knox shortly after Eureka was born. '[Monica] said, 'I think it's time to tell your story. I know you want to on your own terms and in your own way. We can do it together.'' Knox wrote her first memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, in 2013, and her second book, Free: My Search for Meaning, came out in March. But a scripted series is a different challenge, offering a chance to show the emotional nuances and psychological complexity that words alone can't always capture. With Lewinsky's guidance, Knox finally felt ready. 'She wasn't just like, 'Here's a horrible thing that happened to a girl and here's a courtroom drama.' It's a more personal story of who you were before a traumatic event enters your life, and who you are after. How do you make sense of it? What do you do to reclaim a sense of ownership over your own life? That's what the [show] is about,' Knox, who produced the series alongside Lewinsky, says. 'That's why we frame it the way we do in the show: I'm going back to Italy to confront my prosecutor.' Aside from Lewinsky, Knox credits creator and showrunner K.J. Steinberg for guiding the series with sensitivity and ensuring the story was told with both accuracy and heart. '[Steinberg] completely understood the stakes. Her vision meshed with my own, and we were able to create this story together that was not just a rehashing of a terrible thing,' Knox says. 'It was something that honored all the people involved ... I feel really lucky to be on this journey with so many incredibly talented people who want to get it right.' Facing the shadow After Kercher was found dead, police interrogated Knox for a total of 53 hours over five days. Part of the prosecution's evidence against her was a signed confession, which she says was the result of coercive tactics. For Knox, one of the most emotionally charged sequences in the series centers on the interrogation. It was a scene she was 'really concerned' about. 'A lot of people have mistaken notions about what an interrogation is really like,' she says. 'You think of CSI, but really, these things happen behind closed doors. Those of us who enter into them are unprepared because we don't know how it really works.' The scene depicting the questioning is condensed but powerful. 'I had to show a version that still trails the psychological journey both I and my interrogators were on. They're convincing themselves of a story while trying to convince me to submit to it. That was crucial. As someone now who's an advocate for criminal justice reform, I want people to viscerally understand that experience,' Knox says. The weight of that scene hit her hard, even during production. 'I watched when we filmed it. It was over and over, 10 hours a day for two days, from all different angles. By the time we were done, I just wept — not just because I was triggered, but because I was relieved that we had gotten it right,' she says. As an executive producer, Knox had significant creative input, including a say in casting and cowriting the series finale. 'Isn't Grace Van Patten stunning? She was so good,' Knox says of the actress who plays her. 'She could bring in the whimsy, the gravitas and the heart.' While it was crucial for Knox that Van Patten nail the facets of her personality, equally important was capturing the depth and vulnerability of Knox as a mother. It's a role that has shaped how she has approached every decision in the past four years. When Knox gave birth to Eureka, the first words she said to her daughter were: 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm your mom.' Knox is used to living with a shadow, and she knows that shadow will follow her kids as well. Millions of people still assume she's guilty of a crime she was acquitted of, and one day, her kids will read all about it online. Knox says the decision to tell her story now in this way is about 'wanting to make sure these things don't happen again so that someone else's daughter out there [doesn't] get treated the way that I got treated,' adding, 'and the way Monica got treated.' 'Monica and I both are really concerned about trying to do right so that when the next person comes along, they have a less hard time,' she says. Legacies intertwined The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox isn't just about her own story. 'It's about honoring everyone whose life was upended,' Knox says. 'Two girls studied abroad in Perugia, Italy, and only one of them got to go home. Only one of them survived.' Knox then becomes emotional. "Meredith and I ... the way that I look back on it to this day, is that I didn't know her for that long. But for better or for worse, I'm carrying her legacy alongside mine,' she says. Kercher's parents have both died, and Knox never reconciled with them. She hopes to connect with Kercher's siblings but doesn't know if that will happen. Kercher's sister has been vocal in expressing her disappointment that it's Kercher's story that has been lost in all of this for nearly two decades. 'I really felt like it was so important to do [Meredith] justice in the show in a way that it hadn't been done in the past,' Knox says. 'There are people to this day who don't even remember her name, much less the name of the person who actually murdered her.' Guede's 30-year sentence was reduced on appeal to 16 years, and he was released from prison in 2021. Headlines still only focused on one person. 'Amanda Knox's roommate's killer freed,' read one. 'That is a sign that this story has not been told right,' Knox says. 'And it was one that I am trying to correct.' Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Amanda Knox knows she's the story. Becoming a mom made her ready to tell it onscreen, on her own terms.
"For better or for worse, I'm carrying her legacy alongside mine," Knox says of her former roommate Meredith Kercher. Most people reconnect with former classmates at milestone reunions. Maybe they meet for an occasional coffee when they're back in their hometown. When I saw Amanda Knox for the first time since our high school graduation, our reconnection was a little different. There we were, talking face-to-face over Zoom about Hulu's new scripted series The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, inspired by 16 pivotal years of her life. Knox was keeping a low profile when our 10-year reunion came around in Seattle in 2015, afraid to be in public spaces. She had just learned that Italy's high court would finally bring some closure to a case that began in 2007, when she was arrested on a charge of murder in the death of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, her roommate while studying abroad in Perugia. 'The first letters that I ever got in prison were from people from [our high school],' she tells me, her voice softening as we begin our conversation. 'I'm going to get emotional right now, because everyone else in my life — my parents, my college friends — they were all just like, 'Oh, Amanda's going to get out any day now.' But I think [our school] had this sort of established sense of how to respond to a crisis, and we're going to do it collectively. Like, we know this girl. To receive those messages when I was in the middle of this insane story that was blowing up around me? That was a huge relief.' To call her story insane is an understatement. Knox was convicted of murder and spent four years in prison before she was acquitted in 2011. The case took several twists: In 2014, an appeals court reversed that acquittal and reconvicted her. That second guilty verdict, for Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, was thrown out in 2015 by Italy's highest court, ending the legal saga. Rudy Guede, whose DNA was found at the crime scene, remains the only person convicted of Kercher's murder. Through it all, Knox says, her story was often misrepresented, both in the media and by the public. The Hulu series, which premieres on Aug. 20, is her attempt to tell it herself onscreen. The Lewinsky effect The series itself came together at a pivotal moment in Knox's life. She had just given birth to daughter Eureka in 2021 and was struggling with how to reconcile the trauma she had endured with her new role as a mother. 'I was sitting with this feeling of needing to be OK,' Knox says, explaining she had to confront her past to avoid 'consciously or unconsciously passing on this dark cloud that had been hovering over me onto my children.' (She also shares son Echo with husband Christopher Robinson.) She began corresponding with Giuliano Mignini, the lead prosecutor who worked for years to get both her and Sollecito locked up. The two have since formed an unlikely friendship, and Knox says she's forgiven him. This is a big plot point in The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, a show that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for a different, unexpected friendship Knox formed with Monica Lewinsky. Knox first met Lewinsky in 2017, when she was feeling 'very small and diminished' and that people still didn't believe in her innocence. The two bonded immediately. 'Monica had been reduced to a punch line, just like I had,' Knox says. 'Seeing how she emerged, speaking out, writing, advocating — it made me realize there was a path forward for my own story.' Lewinsky reached out to Knox shortly after Eureka was born. '[Monica] said, 'I think it's time to tell your story. I know you want to on your own terms and in your own way. We can do it together.'' Knox wrote her first memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, in 2013, and her second book, Free: My Search for Meaning, came out in March. But a scripted series is a different challenge, offering a chance to show the emotional nuances and psychological complexity that words alone can't always capture. With Lewinsky's guidance, Knox finally felt ready. 'She wasn't just like, 'Here's a horrible thing that happened to a girl and here's a courtroom drama.' It's a more personal story of who you were before a traumatic event enters your life, and who you are after. How do you make sense of it? What do you do to reclaim a sense of ownership over your own life? That's what the [show] is about,' Knox, who produced the series alongside Lewinsky, says. 'That's why we frame it the way we do in the show: I'm going back to Italy to confront my prosecutor.' Aside from Lewinsky, Knox credits creator and showrunner K.J. Steinberg for guiding the series with sensitivity and ensuring the story was told with both accuracy and heart. '[Steinberg] completely understood the stakes. Her vision meshed with my own, and we were able to create this story together that was not just a rehashing of a terrible thing,' Knox says. 'It was something that honored all the people involved ... I feel really lucky to be on this journey with so many incredibly talented people who want to get it right.' Facing the shadow After Kercher was found dead, police interrogated Knox for a total of 53 hours over five days. Part of the prosecution's evidence against her was a signed confession, which she says was the result of coercive tactics. For Knox, one of the most emotionally charged sequences in the series centers on the interrogation. It was a scene she was 'really concerned' about. 'A lot of people have mistaken notions about what an interrogation is really like,' she says. 'You think of CSI, but really, these things happen behind closed doors. Those of us who enter into them are unprepared because we don't know how it really works.' The scene depicting the questioning is condensed but powerful. 'I had to show a version that still trails the psychological journey both I and my interrogators were on. They're convincing themselves of a story while trying to convince me to submit to it. That was crucial. As someone now who's an advocate for criminal justice reform, I want people to viscerally understand that experience,' Knox says. The weight of that scene hit her hard, even during production. 'I watched when we filmed it. It was over and over, 10 hours a day for two days, from all different angles. By the time we were done, I just wept — not just because I was triggered, but because I was relieved that we had gotten it right,' she says. As an executive producer, Knox had significant creative input, including a say in casting and cowriting the series finale. 'Isn't Grace Van Patten stunning? She was so good,' Knox says of the actress who plays her. 'She could bring in the whimsy, the gravitas and the heart.' While it was crucial for Knox that Van Patten nail the facets of her personality, equally important was capturing the depth and vulnerability of Knox as a mother. It's a role that has shaped how she has approached every decision in the past four years. When Knox gave birth to Eureka, the first words she said to her daughter were: 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm your mom.' Knox is used to living with a shadow, and she knows that shadow will follow her kids as well. Millions of people still assume she's guilty of a crime she was acquitted of, and one day, her kids will read all about it online. Knox says the decision to tell her story now in this way is about 'wanting to make sure these things don't happen again so that someone else's daughter out there [doesn't] get treated the way that I got treated,' adding, 'and the way Monica got treated.' 'Monica and I both are really concerned about trying to do right so that when the next person comes along, they have a less hard time,' she says. Legacies intertwined The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox isn't just about her own story. 'It's about honoring everyone whose life was upended,' Knox says. 'Two girls studied abroad in Perugia, Italy, and only one of them got to go home. Only one of them survived.' Knox then becomes emotional. "Meredith and I ... the way that I look back on it to this day, is that I didn't know her for that long. But for better or for worse, I'm carrying her legacy alongside mine,' she says. Kercher's parents have both died, and Knox never reconciled with them. She hopes to connect with Kercher's siblings but doesn't know if that will happen. Kercher's sister has been vocal in expressing her disappointment that it's Kercher's story that has been lost in all of this for nearly two decades. 'I really felt like it was so important to do [Meredith] justice in the show in a way that it hadn't been done in the past,' Knox says. 'There are people to this day who don't even remember her name, much less the name of the person who actually murdered her.' Guede's 30-year sentence was reduced on appeal to 16 years, and he was released from prison in 2021. Headlines still only focused on one person. 'Amanda Knox's roommate's killer freed,' read one. 'That is a sign that this story has not been told right,' Knox says. 'And it was one that I am trying to correct.' Solve the daily Crossword
The Independent
26-03-2025
- The Independent
Amanda Knox insists ‘I really honour Meredith's memory' as she defends memoir
Amanda Knox has defended releasing her latest memoir by saying honouring her murdered flatmate Meredith Kercher's past 'does not mean erasing my own'. The 37-year-old criticised Ms Kercher's family's lawyer who said 'the initiatives of Knox continue to be inappropriate and disrespectful', as she told ITV's Good Morning Britain (GMB) that he can 'very politely keep his opinions to himself'. Ms Knox said she hoped Ms Kercher's family would read her second memoir, adding: 'I really honour Meredith's memory.' Officers discovered the body of British foreign exchange student Ms Kercher in her bedroom in Perugia on November 2 2007. They said the 21-year-old's throat had been slashed and she had been sexually assaulted. 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, she and Mr Sollecito were acquitted of sexual assault and murder by Italy's highest court in 2015. Rudy Hermann Guede was convicted of Ms Kercher's murder in 2008. Questioned on whether releasing her second memoir would risk looking as if she was capitalising on her own tragedy, Ms Knox told GMB: 'Well, I would say that my first book was a very different one to this book. 'I'm very proud of Waiting To Be Heard. It was written at a time when I felt like so many people were authoring my experience and saying what it was and I felt like I needed to set the record straight. 'It was written at a time when I was deeply immersed in the legal saga and in proving my innocence. 'Today, I look at this as an opportunity to share a story of, not erasing the past but really learning from the past so that we can live better lives, personally and as a society.' Asked about the impact her book could have on Ms Kercher's family, Ms Knox said: 'I hope that they read my book because I really honour Meredith's memory in the book but I also believe that honouring her past and story does not mean erasing my own. 'I am a person who is continuing to pursue justice in this case but a bigger issue that I try and speak to and free is how do we all overcome the traumas that are in our lives, regardless of whether or not we get what we deserve.' Ms Knox was also asked to respond to the words of Ms Kercher's family's lawyer, Francesco Maresca, who said: '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.' In response, Ms Knox told GMB: 'Well, I would say that he's a hypocrite, honestly, as someone who himself has profited not just off the work that he has done on the case but in writing his own book, I think that Mr Maresca can very politely keep his opinions to himself. 'He has always been very much a man who has never, ever considered my humanity and experience and is subject to something that I like to call single victim fallacy. 'The idea that in a tragic event, there can only be one victim, and that is simply not true so I think, I don't really care what Mr Maresca thinks, to be frank.'
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Yahoo
Amanda Knox Says She's Haunted by Meredith Kercher's ‘Benevolent' Ghost
Amanda Knox has said she feels haunted by Meredith Kercher's 'benevolent spirit' and struggles with survivor's guilt over the murder she was wrongly convicted of. In an interview with People, Knox reflected on coming to terms with her 'legacy' of being linked to the 2007 murder of Kercher, her roommate while studying abroad in Italy. 'There's always this subtext, like 'Look at Amanda living her life while Meredith is dead,'' she said. 'Any expression of life in my life is seen as an offense to the memory of my friend who got murdered.' Knox, 37, spent four years in an Italian prison after being wrongly convicted of the fatal stabbing of Kercher, a British college student with whom she shared an apartment. Prosecutors in the 2009 trial portrayed Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito as deviants who had killed Kercher in a botched sex game. After signing a statement implicating herself in the murder, allegedly under pressure from the police, Knox and her then-Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty of Kercher's murder in the widely-publicized trial. Upon a later appeal, however, they were acquitted in 2011. Another suspect, Rudy Guede, was then convicted of Kercher's murderer. Now a criminal justice advocate, Knox spoke to People about how the ordeal has shaped her outlook on life. 'I've described it as feeling haunted by Meredith, but not in that bad way that people sort of project onto me...' Knox continued, explaining she sees Kercher's presence in her life as a 'benevolent spirit,' serving to '(remind) me of the value of life, the privilege it is to live and the privilege it is to fight for your life. Because she fought for hers.' She told People that she still receives angry messages from people who blame her for Kercher's death, acknowledging the inescapable connection between her name and the tragedy. Last November, Kercher's family denounced Knox for continuing to publicize the case, after it was announced that Knox would serve as executive producer on a Hulu series dramatizing the events. 'We've already spoken about this case too much and at a certain point you have to close the chapter,' the family's lawyer Francesco Maresca told The Times. 'However, Knox does not want to close the chapter.' 'So many people only ever heard about her through that context. And so in their mind, my existence and her death are married.. I don't necessarily think that that's a crazy thought, because I've had it, in how I am experiencing survivor's guilt and how I've come to process Meredith's death in terms of my life.' Knox is promoting her new book Free: My Search for Meaning, in which she recounts reintegrating into society after her release from prison and reflects on the 'search for meaning and purpose.'
