Amanda Knox's Fringe show described as 'offensive and deplorable' by Meredith Kercher's family

Amanda Knox has defended her Fringe comedy about her wrongful imprisonment for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher after the student’s parents described the show as “offensive and deplorable”.

Knox is due to perform her show - Amanda Knox: Cartwheel - at the Gilded Balloon (Teviot) for 10 days in August.

She said the show was about her wrongful imprisonment - and how she will explain her past life to her daughter.

Knox and her then boyfried, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of the murder and sexual assault of Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy in 2007.

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The couple maintained their innocence and, after years of legal battles, were acquitted by Italy’s highest court in 2015.

Just over a decade on, Knox, now married with children and living in rural Washington, is set to share her story on the Edinburgh stage.

Ms Kercher’s relatives, according to their lawyer Francesco Maresca, have called the idea of the show “offensive and deplorable”, a report in The Telegraph said.

Meredith Kercher was murdered in Perugia, Italy, in 2007 (Handout/PA)

Knox has defended the show and said she believes Ms Kercher would “appreciate the show because it grapples with what it means to be a young woman, and it is honest”, adding that she thought her late roommate would have found it “funny”.

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Knox, who described her Fringe run as a return to her “comedy and musical theatre roots”, said she initially planned to make a show about motherhood – but was told by comedian friends she had to “address the elephant in the room”.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Ms Knox said she did not believe there were any topics off bounds for comedy, but insisted she would not poke fun at Ms Kercher’s death.

She added: “I don’t joke about Meredith’s death. I joke a lot about how I was vilified, but I don’t joke about her murder. That’s just a line for me. I set red lines for myself that other comedians don’t. I’ve had other comedians pitch me jokes that I just would not do,” she said.

Asked about whether her loved ones were concerned about backlash to the show, she referred to a gag she says on stage: “My friends and family are actually really nervous for me, despite my spotless record in the court of public opinion.”

Knox has previously shared her story in documentaries, an eight-part TV drama she produced with Monica Lewinsky, and books.

Rudy Hermann Guede was convicted of Ms Kercher’s murder in 2008. He was released from prison in 2021 after serving 13 years of a 16-year term.

Knox said it was an “unresolved wound” that she had never spoken to Ms Kercher’s parents about what happened to their daughter.

She said: “If they reached out to me and actually communicated with me for the first time ever, I would absolutely want to talk to them. I assume they still assume that I’m guilty. I would very much want to establish that kind of communication, but I’m not going to have my life dictated by what they want for me.”

“We share a grief, and we both knew a real person who died, and who primarily belongs to them, but I’m a person too. I have the life that I have lived, and I have the right to tell my own story, and Meredith is a big part of that story. And I think I honour her.”