Amanda Knox never asked to be a public name. She was merely a student who thought that studying abroad in Perugia, Italy, would be a fun idea. She could have been anyone's daughter. But instead, she got wrapped up in a grisly murder.
Amanda's roommate, Meredith Kercher, was found both raped and murdered. Amanda and her new boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, were accused of playing a part in what happened. Since Amanda was young and suffering from culture shock, she wasn't fully aware of the trouble she was in. Meanwhile, the world piled on her, giving her names like "Foxy Knoxy" and following her every footstep. When Amanda bought new underwear, it was reported as being a sexy scandal. In reality, she was just being a human who ran out of clean underwear in the midst of an investigation.
The student, who was eventually exonerated, had to spend four years of her life in jail overseas. That's time she can never get back. Since returning to the United States, she has been rebuilding her life.
Amanda actually married her husband, Christopher Robinson, twice — once in 2018 and again on February 29, 2020, for a Leap Day celebration. According to E! News, some of her followers weren't too happy with the fact that she set up a registry and asked for money to help fund the wedding, especially after realizing it wasn't her first.
"We filed paperwork to be legally married in December of last year to simplify our taxes and insurance," Amanda and Christopher confirmed with E! But they still wanted to celebrate with family.
The happy couple, who have a podcast together, also opened up this year about having a miscarriage. In July 2021, when she was already secretly pregnant again, she discussed how the loss made her feel as a woman.
"I did feel incredibly disappointed that that was the first story of my first-ever pregnancy," she said, per NBC News. "I thought, like, I knew exactly what I want to do with my first pregnancy, and to have it not come to fruition not through choice felt like a betrayal."
While around 25% of documented pregnancies end in miscarriage, Amanda still felt like she was to blame. "Do I have bad eggs and I just never knew? Am I too old? Did something happen to me while I was over in Italy?" she said. "If it's not easy and you don't know why, then anything could be the problem. It's frustrating how little information you have at any point in the process."
However, Amanda had an interesting way of spacing the news. By talking about her miscarriage, she likely knew that people wouldn't expect she was already trying again. Before announcing the birth of her daughter, Amanda threw followers off her track even more by posting random photos throughout her most recent pregnancy, with captions showcasing how far along she was.
A lot of her retrospection was painfully raw. During week 12, she started doubting her own capabilities, noting, "A lot of the time, you feel bloated and exhausted, awkward and uncomfortable. It doesn't feel…right, which makes you worry, 'Am I not cut out to be a mom? What's wrong with me?'"
"WEEK 26: The app tells me baby is as big as an acorn squash. How the $*!# will this thing come out of me?" she playfully noted just days ago, making it perfectly clear to fans that she's messing with the timeline. Still, in the pictures, Amanda glows. And it's one of the first times she's had control over her own story.
"WEEK 29: According to the law of gestational dynamics states, the more one partner expands, the more the other deflates," she wrote on yet another image, posted just a day after one of an earlier week.
"Kid's in 5th grade already," one follower joked. But that seems to be the type of privacy that Amanda was going for all along.
The very last photo is Amanda with her daughter, later revealed to be named Eureka Muse. On Instagram, she finally explained why she kept such a big secret, and based on her own personal history, it makes a lot of sense.
"Since my exoneration, I've struggled to reclaim my identity and protect the people I love from being exploited as tabloid content," she shared. "It's not easy, and I often feel like I'm trying to invent good choices out of bad whole cloth."
"I know that I cannot 100% protect my daughter from the kind of treatment I've suffered, but I'm doing the best I can," she continued. "Which is why this will be the only picture of her I will ever share on social media. I'm so grateful to everyone who has wished @emceecarbon and I well on our journey to parenthood. Thank you for believing in us."
Amanda Knox didn't have many choices after first traveling to Italy. But now she's trying hard to advocate for her daughter and give her the privacy she deserves. That alone is a heavy reminder that while she may appear unscathed at times, Amanda went through something that most people never have. As she told the New York Times, "I'm constantly having to be in conversation with something that I would rather not … I'm constantly told that I should just disappear."
With this new role of motherhood, now she's really trying to figure out who she is and do away with the fictional version of herself created by the media. Whether you love her, hate her, or think she's actually guilty of the crime after all, she's still a person at the end of the day. And she's trying to be the best mom she can be regardless of the headlines of the past.
