Amanda Knox raised eyebrows and ire when she and her thought-to-be fiancé, Christopher Robinson, opened a crowdfunding registry to raise thousands of dollars for their upcoming space-themed wedding. But The Daily Beast and other media outlets have confirmed through a King County, Washington, record search that the two are already married—they obtained their marriage certificate on Dec. 7, 2018.
The Seattle native, who was convicted and ultimately acquitted of the 2007 murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, had claimed the couple were getting married in February 2020.
There is nothing wrong with being married at city hall and then later celebrating in a church or with a fabulous party, except when the married couple are trying to raise money by implying the wedding is yet to happen. On the first incarnation of the wedding registry, which has been amended as the scandal grows, Mr. & Mrs. Knox Robinson set their date as Feb. 29, 2020, which is Leap Day. The site even has a countdown clock to the wedding date.
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They do not refer to the event as a just a party or celebration, but to their wedding.
Knox tweeted a link to the fundraising site to her 40,000 followers.
They changed the wording of their original crowdfunder site when criticism erupted. It first asked for help paying for the wedding. After outrage, the site simply stated that they would accept donations. It is yet unclear whether they will change it again.
When she was first accused of asking for money, Knox accused the media of stirring up anger for no reason, and she denied that asking for money from followers online qualified as crowdfunding. “I did not put it out there expecting to get a dime from anyone,” Knox told ABC News, despite the fact that the registry offers 18 options to donate between $25 and $10,000 for the wedding.
In a tweet at the time, she wrote, “To those hating on us all day, you’ve been duped by the outrage machine. You gave ad $ to tabloids that profit by making you angry about things that don’t matter. Our wedding will be crazy & fun & barebones if it needs to be, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter.”
After it was reported that Knox and Robinson were already married, Knox issued yet another clarification in an open letter to the Italian media.
“We filed paperwork to be legally married in December of last year to simplify our taxes and insurance,” she writes. “But we have not yet celebrated our wedding with our loved ones. This should be no more shocking than the fact that we’ve been living together for years.”
She goes on to say, “Our wedding will take place on February 29, 2020. We are paying for everything up font [sic] ourselves.” She also explains that the reason they need the money is because her recent trip to Italy drained their accounts. After The Daily Beast confirmed that the Innocence Project did pay her airfare and lodging, Knox admits that the costs were incurred because of the expenses of the others, including her mother, who accompanied her. She says she spent an additional $10,000 on “precautions necessary for my safety and to avoid harassment.” Italian police and the Innocence Project did provide security as well.
The registry site offers the option to donate $100 for a time machine. “Fortunately, we found a time traveler’s headquarters (it’s much bigger on the inside) and have received permission to use it,” they say. It seems they have already put their time machine to use.
Editor’s note: Barbie Latza Nadeau is the author of Angel Face: Sex, Murder and the Inside Story of Amanda Knox, which was adapted for film in 2014.
