Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that Amanda Knox will likely never escape the infamy that follows her owing to the murder of her roommate while she was an exchange student in Italy. She was actually accused of the crime stemming from an alleged sex game gone wrong, as per Hulu’s ‘The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox,’ and then convicted in a complex trial. She was ultimately acquitted following an appeal and then fully exonerated in March 2015, but the weight of the past probably continues to hang over her head and her present standing.
How Did Amanda Knox Earn Her Money?
Born on July 9, 1987, in Seattle, Washington, to mathematics teacher Edda Mellas (originally from Germany) and Macy’s Vice President of Finance Curt Knox, Amanda Knox is the eldest of three daughters. Her parents sadly separated when she was just a young girl, following which her mother remarried and settled down with an Information Technology consultant named Chris Mellas. Therefore, she grew up in a blended family and learned the significance of ambition, hard work, and perseverance at an early age, right along with what it really means to be supportive.
Amanda was reportedly 15 when she first traveled to Italy for a family vacation, just to fall so head over heels in love with the region that she knew she wanted to return one day. Therefore, upon graduating from Seattle Preparatory School in 2005 and enrolling at the University of Washington to study Linguistics, she eventually decided to apply for a full academic year abroad. She thus kickstarted her career by working a few odd part-time jobs to fund her dreams, that is, until she got accepted as an exchange student at the University of Perugia in 2007.
Amanda could never have imagined that she would only be allowed to return to the United States in 2011, after she was acquitted of her fellow exchange student roommate Meredith Kercher’s murder. It was admittedly hard for her to settle back down in her hometown initially, owing to paparazzi often following her, but she chose to do her best to move forward in life. In fact, she soon returned to the University of Washington, from where she earned a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing before evolving into an author, journalist, and activist for the wrongly accused.
Amanda published her first book, ‘Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir,’ in 2013, but as per records, most of her proceeds from this were spent on paying her legal fees to her Italian lawyers. She then evolved into a journalist for the West Seattle Herald (now known as Westside Seattle), where she honed her skills while also starting to dabble in activism. She initially just attended events by organizations dedicated to supporting the wrongly accused and convicted before evolving into a public speaker for the same. As if that’s not enough, she then decided to host Vice/Facebook Watch’s ‘The Scarlet Letter Reports’ to discuss the deeply-rooted issue of gender-based publicly shaming by the media. Then, the proud activist even hosted podcasts such as ‘The Truth About True Crime’ as well as ‘Labyrinths.’
Amanda Knox’s Earnings and Net Worth
Considering the fact that Amanda has been active as a writer, journalist, and activist since the early 2010s, it appears as if she has managed to accumulate significant wealth for herself. While her precise income is difficult to calculate since information regarding her book sales and compensation is not public knowledge, we estimate she made roughly $100,000 a year when she started out. This is based on the fact that a starting salary for a reporter in Seattle is between $50,000 and $65,000 per year, and her speaking engagements likely made her $20,000 per year. A significant portion of this money was likely spent on her legal fees and clearing her family’s debts, which they had incurred to support her in Italy for over 4 years, but it seems like that aspect is now over.
Moreover, with Amanda now having published another book, ‘Free: My Search for Meaning’ (2025), and her story having been told via different projects, she likely earns even more in the form of royalties. However, again, it’s difficult to calculate the same since the level of her involvement or the deals she has made for each documentary, film, or show is unclear. All we can assume is that her income has gone from $100,000 per year to close to $300,000 per year, based on the current market. It’s also imperative to note that following a human rights lawsuit, Italy was ordered to pay Amanda €18,400 (around S$20,800) for violating her rights when she was first held in custody. Therefore, taking all these aspects into account, along with her possible assets, investments, returns, and expenses, especially now as a happily married mother of two, we believe Amanda Knox’s net worth to be close to $1 million.
Read More: Who Was Rudy Guede to Meredith Kreacher? Did Amanda Knox Know Him?
