What Is Amanda Knox’s Net Worth? Inside Her Financial Woes
"People just assume Amanda must be wealthy because she wrote a book," said her husband.
Jun. 6 2024, Published 5:09 p.m. ET
Amanda Knox has lived a hard-knock life. Her name was all over the headlines in 2007 when she and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were accused of killing her roommate, Meredith Kercher. At the time, the then-20-year-old was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy.
Knox was found guilty on murder charges and served four years in an Italian prison. When she returned to the United States, she was convicted again.
Her ordeal took a positive turn when she was exonerated by Italy’s supreme court in 2015. The now-36-year-old now works as an advocate for the wrongfully convicted. She has also made a living by sharing her painful story, but what is her net worth?
What is Amanda Knox’s net worth?
Knox's net worth is estimated to be $500,000. After serving time in prison, Knox returned to her studies and completed an undergraduate degree in creative writing. She got a job in writing by working on an arts column for the West Seattle Herald. By far, her largest source of income was the $3.8 million advance she received for her New York Times bestselling memoir, Waiting to Be Heard.
But since the money was quickly spent, it didn’t add to Knox's net worth.
She had to use the money to pay legal fees and pay back family members.
“People just assume Amanda must be wealthy because she wrote a book,” Knox's now-husband Christopher Robinson told People in 2017. “But that $3.8 million is long gone.”
He continued, “She paid back her parents and grandma, who took out mortgages to move to Italy during her case and pay her lawyers. And she still has massive legal bills.”
She appeared in an Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary about her case.
In 2016, Netflix premiered Amanda Knox, a documentary about the murder trial and how media coverage shaped the world’s perception of the case.
Although Knox is featured in the documentary, her husband shared that she didn’t receive compensation for her participation. “People also think she gets paid every time she does an interview,” he told People. “But she doesn’t. She got zero dollars for participating in the documentary. And that’s the way it should be. But most people don’t know that.”
She only received over $20,000 out of the $3 million she sought for damages.
She received almost $21,000 from Italy after the European Court of Human Rights ordered them to pay her damages. These damages included how she wasn’t given an English interpreter or access to a lawyer during the night that she was questioned about her roommate’s murder. She also claimed that she was slapped in the head during questioning, but no proof has backed up these claims.
“I was interrogated for 53 hours over five days, without a lawyer, in a language I understood maybe as well as a 10-year-old,” Knox said, per The New York Times.
Where is Amanda Knox now?
Knox and Robinson are married and have two children. She dedicates her time to being an advocate for criminal justice reform. She even returned to Italy in 2019 when she gave a speech as the keynote speaker at a criminal justice conference.
She recently returned to Italy for less positive reasons. The Florence court sentenced Knox to three years for slander after she falsely claimed that Patrick Lumumba murdered her roommate. She is currently in Italy to appeal the case.
“I will walk into the very same courtroom where I was reconvicted of a crime I didn´t commit, this time to defend myself yet again,” she wrote on social media.
She added: "I hope to clear my name once and for all of the false charges against me. Wish me luck."