It’s been 14 years since she was released from an Italian prison for a crime she didn’t commit, andAmanda Knox, 37, says she has now given up on trying to convince every single person that she’s innocent.
“The person who they accused [of the crime] doesn’t exist,” Knox tells PEOPLE of being portrayed as a murderess and sexual deviant in the sensational trial over the shocking death of her roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy in 2007.
“‘Foxy Knoxy’ is literally a figment of other people’s imagination, and that’s who they wanted to put in prison,” she says. “She was the idea of a person, who just happened to have my face and my name.”
But in her new memoir Free: My Search For Meaning (March 25), Knox writes of letting go of trying to control her narrative — and instead trying her best to give back, embrace happiness and love and even find forgiveness.
“If people have an image of you and it is false, you want to clear things up. But I’m not going to bother trying to get into the minds of every single person out there who has a crazy idea about me, because that’s impossible,” she says.
Instead, she’s considering doing something next that will likely shock people.
“I love writing. I love being a mom,” she says of her life now. “But one thing that I would love to be a bigger part of my life is comedy.”
She continues, “I love comedy. People just don’t usually think of me in comedic terms because I am associated with a tragedy in their minds, and because a lot of the work that I do is very much either advocating for criminal justice reform or writing about some really deep, hard, difficult truths.”
She adds, “But [I know about ] the absurdity of life, and how to talk to get through things. One chapter in my book is entirely devoted to humor and what it means to me and why it’s such a powerful influence in my life,” she says.
“So what I want to do is I want to write a stand-up comedy special someday. So stay tuned for that!”
In the meantime, she continues to work with the Innocence Network, and speak with others who have been wrongfully imprisoned and are trying to get their lives back. She says her work in that realm has been healing — and also shocking.
“I was introduced to a world I didn’t even know existed,” she says of discovering just how many other people had been wrongfully imprisoned in the U.S.
She adds that she’s grateful every day to be alive.
“I’m so lucky to be alive right now,” she says, noting that she could easily have been the one home that night when her apartment was broken into and Kercher was murdered. Rudy Guede was convicted of the murder.
“I’m so lucky to be able to tell my story. I’m so lucky to have children. Women who get wrongly convicted typically do not get out in time to have children. I’m one of the few women that I know who has. It is bonkers how lucky I am,” Knox says.
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Free: My Search for Meaning is out March 25
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