Amanda Knox's life now, 8 years on: "I'm still someone else's story."

It’s been 10 years since a then 22-year-old Amanda Knox stood before a judge in an Italian court room and was found guilty of murder.

She was sentenced to 26 years in prison. It was determined that Knox, an American exchange student, had murdered her roommate Meredith Kercher in the home they shared in Perugia, Italy.

In early November 2007, Knox returned home to find the front door open and drops of blood in the bathroom.

Watch the Netflix trailer for ‘Amanda Knox’, their documentary on her trial and acquittal. Post continues. 

Kercher’s bedroom door was locked, which Knox assumed to mean she was still sleeping.

After showering, Knox noticed faeces in the toilet of the bathroom they shared with their two other roommates, as well as a broken window.

Her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, attempted to enter Kercher’s bedroom with no success.

Eventually, they alerted police.

A lengthy interrogation resulted in Knox implicating herself in the murder of Kercher, which led to her conviction. Bloodstained fingerprints of a known burglar named Rudy Guede were found throughout Kercher’s room, which contributed to police’s theory that a number of people had worked together.

Knox was portrayed by the media as a manipulative femme fatale who did not mourn appropriately for her friend - a characterisation which still lingers.

Along with her boyfriend Sollecito, Knox spent almost four years in an Italian prison, before being acquitted. There was no evidence that Knox and Sollecito were involved in Kercher's murder, and the crime is now understood to have been perpetrated by Guede alone.

Since her definitive acquittal in 2015, Knox has moved back to the United States and pursued a career as an author and journalist.

Is Amanda Knox still with Raffaele Sollecito?

The relationship between Knox and Sollecito ended while they were in prison, Knox says largely because he undermined her alibi.

While Knox insisted she had been watching a movie at the home of Sollecito the night Kercher was murdered, Sollecito told prosecutors he wasn't sure.

Amanda Knox's first trip back to Italy.

In June 2019, 31-year-old Knox returned to Italy for the first time since her acquittal in 2011.

She was a guest speaker for a panel session titled 'Trial by Media' held by the Italy Innocence Project.

She works closely with the Innocence Project and advocates on behalf of publicly-shamed women.

"I know, despite my absolution from the court of cassation, I remain a controversial figure in the public opinion, above all especially here in Italy," Knox told the audience during the panel session.

"On the world scene I wasn't a defendant, innocent until proven guilty. I was a clever psychopath, dirty and drug-addicted whore, guilty until proven innocent," she added. "It was a false and unfounded history that lit up people's imagination because it fed fears and fantasies."

"I am not a monster, I simply am Amanda."

Where does Amanda Knox live?

Knox now lives with her fiance in Seattle, Washington, where she grew up and lived before her exchange to Italy.

 

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3 Days till I return to Italy for the first time since leaving prison. Feeling frayed, so I made my own inspirational workplace poster. "Hang in there!" Just imagine I'm a kitten.

A post shared by Amanda Knox (@amamaknox) on Jun 9, 2019 at 7:24pm PDT

Amanda Knox's podcast: The Truth About True Crime.

Knox now hosts a podcast where she, in her own words, "attempt[s] to re-humanize others who have been singled out as true crime fodder and elevate the standard for how we think and talk about those whose lives are thrust into the judicial and media spotlight."

Amanda Knox's viral Medium essay.

On June 12, 2019, Knox published an essay to Medium, titled 'Your Content, My Life.'

"Eight years after my release from an Italian prison," she writes, "I'm still someone else's story."

She provides insight into what it's like to have millions of people treat your life as nothing more than entertainment.

"Thrust into the spotlight against my will in 2007," she writes, "the year of the iPhone and the takeoff of Twitter and Facebook, the most intimate details of my life — from my sexual history to my thoughts of death and suicide in prison — were taken from my private diary and leaked to the media. They became fodder for hundreds of articles, thousands of posts, and millions of hot takes..."

Knox encourages media organisations to remember that the people in their stories are subjects and not objects, and we're all far more complex than a sensationalised headline.

What does Amanda Knox do for work?

In 2013, Knox wrote a bestselling memoir titled, Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir.

She also hosted The Scarlet Letter Reports, a VICE Media web series, which explored publicly shamed women.

The 31-year-old is now a journalist, public speaker and advocate.