Amanda Knox hit back at a petition calling for the cancellation of her Edinburgh Fringe show, defending the critics had made “many false assumptions” about her work.
The media personality, who infamously spent almost four years in an Italian prison after the 2007 murder of roommate Meredith Kercher, addressed the growing controversy surrounding her appearance at the annual arts festival in Scotland.
“There is a petition to cancel my show at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Here is my statement,” she wrote as the petition in-question exceeded 10,000 signatures. “‘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.”
She continued: “Neither the author of this petition nor anyone who signed it has seen ‘Cartwheel.’ The petition contains many false assumptions and completely mischaracterizes the show.”
The Change.org petition, launched by a former coworker of Kercher’s, named Sally Alington, has accused Knox’s “Cartwheel” of “disrespect[ing] Meredith’s memory,” as well as “normalizing violence against women by making light of such a harrowing event.”
However, Knox defended that her show did the exact opposite, writing, “‘Cartwheel’ honors Meredith Kercher’s memory and calls out the violence that was done to her and to me.”
“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,’” Knox continued. “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.”
As Knox went on, she described the arts festival as a place where the “most celebrated comedy shows tackle difficult subjects including grief, trauma, mental health, addiction, illness, identity and politics.”
“Comics rarely treat these experiences lightly or make them the butt of the joke,” she concluded. “Instead, they use comedy as a way to explore them, creating space for audiences to engage with complex ideas, connect through shared experience, and find moments of relief, perspective and hope in subjects that might otherwise feel overwhelming.”
Knox was convicted of Kercher’s murder in 2009 and sentenced to 26 years in prison, but the conviction was overturned in 2011 before she was fully acquitted in 2015. After her release, Knox transformed into a media personality, writing books, hosting a podcast and producing television series.
