'The world is not safe for women,' insists Amanda Knox as she reveals how Meredith Kercher's murder shaped her view on motherhood
Ms Knox, who was widely dubbed 'Foxy Knoxy' following her 2007 trial, said her wrongful conviction showed the how storytelling can "twist and warp people's minds"
Amanda Knox has admitted she worries about raising her daughter in a world that "is not fair or safe for women" - as she reflected on the "indelible" mark Meredith Kercher's death has left on her life.
Listen to this article
The 38-year-old shot to international fame after she was wrongfully convicted for the murder of her British flatmate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy in 2007.
She was ultimately acquitted due to a lack of evidence after being convicted on two separate occasions and has since written books and become an advocate for others who may have been falsely imprisoned.
Speaking on LBC's Tom Swarbrick at Drive, Ms Knox, who is now mother to a four-year-old daughter, said Meredith's death had "changed the course" of her life and shaped her approach to motherhood.
"She was a real person who I knew, especially now that I'm a mother, I think about my daughter entering a world that is not fair and not kind and is not safe for women," she told Swarbrick.
Read more: Amanda Knox documentary blocked from being screened at London cinema hours before event
"And so she has left an indelible mark on my life. And yeah, I think about her a lot," she added.
Ms Knox's conviction and subsequent acquittal, alongside her boyfriend of a week - then 23-year-old computer programming student Raffaele Sollecito, followed a series of retrials and flip-flop verdicts.
Rudy Guede, the only person definitively convicted of Meredith's murder, was imprisoned for 30 years, later reduced to 16 years, and released early in 2021.
But his imprisonment did not put an end to the speculation surrounding Knox's involvement in Meredith's death.
Asked by Tom Swarbrick what Meredith's family needed to heal after the tragedy, Ms Knox said: "I think that one thing that the Italian judicial system never delivered to her family was a clear and concise unequivocal answer of what happened to Meredith.
"I do think that it is possible to arrive at that ultimate truth if you look at the evidence. But I think unfortunately the legal outcome in the case is one that does not satisfy that for them. And I think that has left a, an, an unresolved open wound for that family. And I completely understand their, their ongoing feelings of hurt in that regard."
Meredith's family have been hostile towards Ms Knox in the past, accusing her of attempting to "profit" from Meredith's murder with a Disney-backed drama detailing her ordeal.
Ms Knox was also asked about whether she felt empathy for Andrew Malkinson, who served 17 years behind bars after being wrongfully accused of raping a woman in 2003.
"I imagine that Malkinson had the very same feeling that I had, which is, oh my God, this is a huge misunderstanding...He had a life ahead of him and all of that was taken away and it took far too long for him to get it back.
"I really hope that he is able to take stock not just in what he has lost, but also what he has gained as a person, as a character, as somebody who has been through a deeply traumatic experience, but who has come out on the other side and has something to offer the world."
Ms Knox said her own wrongful conviction had given her a "really deep understanding of human nature and human psychology".
"The idea that somebody could get so fixated on their own conclusions that they fail to see the truth that is there in front of them, the evidence that is there in front of them, and the catastrophic impact of storytelling and how it can twist and warp reality in front of people's minds...it's given me little red flags that help me to adapt to a world that is struggling with misinformation."
Ms Knox, who was widely dubbed 'Foxy Knoxy' following her 2007 trial, added that the relentless focus on her own character had led them to overlook the actual perpetrator.
"This is actually a very typical crime committed against women, unfortunately. You know, my roommate did everything right and she was attacked in her own home by someone who had broken and entered.
"I think that the hyper focus on me and finding fault in me and trying to basically twist any and all of my characteristics, my appearance, my behaviour, as an attempt to make me seem guilty and involved in this crime that I had nothing to do with, at the expense of overlooking the actual perpetrator in this crime, who got off with a lesser sentence and is now out on trial for having sexually assaulted another young woman since getting out. I don't think that would have happened if he had been fully held accountable for his crimes."