Comic hits back at the campaign to cancel her Fringe show

Amanda Knox has hit back at calls for her Edinburgh Fringe show to be cancelled, slamming ‘false accusations intended to shame and vilify a wronged woman into silence’.

The sister of Meredith Kercher – who Knox was wrongly convicted of murdering in Italy in 2007 – yesterday called for the stand-up run to be pulled, saying it made light of the rape and killing.

However, in response Knox criticised the 2,500 people who signed a petition to silence a show they had not seen based on ‘false assumptions’.

She 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. The petition contains false assumptions and mischaracterises the show.

Cartwheel honours Meredith Kercher’s memory.

‘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.

‘Shows performed at the Edinburgh Fringe are often about far more than punchlines. 

‘Many of the Fringe's most celebrated shows tackle difficult subjects including grief, trauma, mental health, addiction, illness, identity and politics. Artists rarely treat these experiences lightly or make them the butt of the joke. 

‘Instead, they use performance 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.’

Meredith's sister Stephanie spoke out after Knox claimed that Meredith would’ve found the show funny.’

She said: ‘My sister's tragedy is being used to debut a comedy show this weekend in Edinburgh of all places by the very person who was questioned and taken to the legal system by Italian prosecution.

‘I'm very aware that in high-profile cases everyone has their own opinions on guilt and innocence and I also agree with freedom of speech. 

'However, when someone is still using Meredith's name to support themselves, and furthermore, when a comedy is linked to an individual case and individual person, I cannot fathom how rape and murder can be laughed about and I cannot understand how one person's behaviour at the police station can be the subject of the comedy show.’

Knox’s show at the Gilded Balloon is called Cartwheel –  a  reference to the exercises she did in a police station on the night she was arrested while waiting to be quizzed.

 Stephanie added: ‘Meredith, my sister, was a very clever and witty person and loved by so many for those very reasons. She was a girl's girl who you could rely on and would very much be the strong courageous woman today. 

‘She absolutely would not find comedy surrounding these issues funny and I believe this goes against everything that inspirational women are still fighting for today."

Family friend Sally Alington, who set up the petition calling on the Gilded Balloon and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to withdraw the show, said: ‘To see this distasteful and disrespectful performance being given the green light to go ahead under the label of a "stand-up comedy" with "adult’" themes when we are talking about the rape and murder of a young woman totally beggars belief.

‘This isn't just wholly inappropriate and hurtful to family and friends of Meredith, this goes far beyond that. It normalises and trivialises violence against women.’

In 2009, Knox was convicted for the November 2007 murder of her roommate Meredith in Perugia, Italy, then acquitted two years later. She was found guilty at a second trial, which was definitively overturned by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation. A known burglar, Rudy Guede, was subsequently convicted of the murder and was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment, later reduced to 16 years.

The Gilded Balloon have previously said they provide a platform for a wide range of voices, ‘in line with the Fringe’s long-standing commitment to freedom of expression… Artists and companies choose to participate at our venue and take on the financial and creative responsibility for their work. 

‘Amanda's show is a one-woman piece exploring themes of motherhood, presented independently by her.’

It would not be in the Festival Fringe Society’s powers to cancel a show, though they could refuse to include it in the online programme.

Published: 6 Aug 2026