Amanda Knox refuses to cancel Edinburgh comedy show
Amanda Knox refuses to cancel Edinburgh comedy show
Tom McArdleFri, August 7, 2026 at 11:19 AM UTC
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Amanda Knox was cleared of murder several years after the death of Meredith Kercher in Italy - Daniel Berman
Amanda Knox has refused to cancel her sold-out Edinburgh Fringe Festival comedy show despite accusations that she is “normalising and trivialising violence against women”.
Ms Knox, who was convicted then cleared of the murder of Meredith Kercher, a British student, in Italy, claimed her former flatmate would have “appreciated” the show.
However, Ms Kercher’s family has accused Ms Knox of “normalising and trivialising violence against women” and said she “absolutely wouldn’t find these topics of any comedy value”.
Ms Knox, 39, from Seattle, was arrested after Ms Kercher’s death and convicted of murder and sexual assault in 2009 alongside Italian Raffaele Sollecito, her then boyfriend. In 2015, after years of legal battles, they were cleared of all the charges against them.
However, her comedy show – which is called Cartwheel, in reference to a claim that she did cartwheels in a police station after Ms Kercher’s death in 2007 – has provoked controversy, with more than 6,000 people signing a petition calling for it to be cancelled.
Meredith Kercher, a student from London, died aged 21 in Italy in 2007 - PA
Ms Knox, who has two children with her husband, Christopher Robinson, said on Instagram that the petition contained “false assumptions and completely mischaracterises the show”. She said the show “honours Meredith Kercher’s memory and calls out the violence that was done to her and to me”.
Ms Knox said: “Cartwheel is a show about motherhood, raising a daughter in a world that is unfair and dangerous for women, and what it costs to be the kind of mother who tells her the truth about that. Neither the author of this petition nor anyone who signed it has seen Cartwheel.
“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.
“It’s a fairly precise description of what Cartwheel is about and why it deserves to exist. And the Edinburgh Fringe is the perfect place for a show like this.”
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Amanda Knox, from Seattle, spent almost four years in prison after being wrongly convicted of murder - Getty
Meanwhile, Tony Lancaster, the director of the Fringe Society, said the festival was “not afraid of controversy”. He said: “I believe that if you are opening up a stage and calling it an open access festival and inviting people in to tell their stories, you have to be prepared for some controversy – it’s going to happen.”
Speaking on Friday, the day the Fringe started, he told BBC Radio Scotland: “The decision as to whether or not [it] goes ahead lies with Amanda herself and it lies with the venue.
“Those are conversations that they can have, but as far as I’m concerned, I believe that if you are opening up a stage and calling it an open access festival and inviting people in to tell their stories, you have to be prepared for some controversy – it’s going to happen.
“As sympathetic as we are to individual cases that crop up, and absolutely, as a parent, I can relate to the pain that they describe, but that can’t be a criteria, it can’t be one of the lenses that we look through.”
Amanda Knox has defended her show, called Cartwheel, saying it ‘calls out’ violence against her and Meredith Kercher - Andrew Perry
Ms Kercher’s sister, Stephanie Kercher, had urged Ms Knox to “think about the family here” and imagine her sister had been killed.
Ms Knox told the BBC: “The interesting irony of that is that my daughter is a huge motivation for me doing this show. It’s about how the world is unsafe and unfair towards women and what it means to raise a daughter in that world, knowing how bad it can be. If they [Ms Kercher’s family] saw my show, they would recognise that.”
Ms Knox has previously said she would be willing to speak to Ms Kercher’s family about the show, which she claimed did not “joke about Meredith’s death”.
She has previously shared her story in documentaries, an eight-part TV drama she produced with Monica Lewinsky, podcasts 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.
The comedy show is due to run for 11 days at the Gilded Balloon Teviot.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
