What Happened to Amanda Knox's Ex-Boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito? Inside His Life After the Tragic Murder of Meredith Kercher

Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito have lived through a harrowing chapter in their lives since the tragic murder of Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher, in 2007. At the time, Knox was studying at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy, when Kercher was found brutally killed in their shared apartment. Authorities quickly suspected Knox, along with Sollecito, and thus began an eight-year legal saga that reached Italy's Supreme Court not once but twice.

Knox and Sollecito had only been dating for eight days when they found themselves embroiled in a legal nightmare. Although their romantic involvement ended shortly after their arrests, they became steadfast allies, united against the overwhelming weight of the Italian justice system.

Sollecito was nearly finished with his computer science degree at Perugia University when he met Knox at a concert in October 2007. Their brief romance quickly turned grim following their arrests in connection with Kercher's murder.

In a 2012 interview with Anderson Cooper, Sollecito expressed regret for cooperating with police without legal counsel.

"The police, they wanted it," he recalled. "The detectives had their eyes on us since the beginning."

In November 2007, charges of murder and sexual assault were levied against Sollecito and Knox. Despite consistently proclaiming their innocence, inconsistencies in their alibis surfaced. Sollecito claimed he was watching cartoons at home the night of the murder, but his computer records failed to support this. Knox said she was with Sollecito that night, though he later admitted he couldn't confirm their whereabouts together. Rudy Guede, a third party involved in the case, was arrested and later convicted for Kercher's murder in October 2008. He received a 30-year sentence but was released early in November 2021.

Sollecito and Knox faced conviction amidst contentious circumstances in their initial trials. After being found guilty in 2009, an appeal two years later overturned their conviction, allowing Knox to return to the U.S. while Sollecito remained in Italy.

The Italian Supreme Court intervened in 2013, ordering a retrial. Knox and Sollecito were again convicted in 2014, leading to Sollecito's temporary imprisonment. Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled in Sollecito's favor in March 2015, exonerating him and declaring he and Knox could not be prosecuted again regarding Kercher's case.

Reflecting on this long ordeal with NBC News, Sollecito said, "Everybody was pushing me… we were in kind of a frenzy… a chaos of happiness," after his exoneration. "It feels like the air is more fresh … the air of freedom feels very nice, it smells nice!"

Though Knox and Sollecito's initial relationship blossomed into deep camaraderie during their trials, they parted ways romantically before the most challenging moments. Sollecito shared with Cooper in 2012 that they maintained contact for four years, despite pressure from his family to betray Knox for personal gain.

"On the plate, there was my life or throw Amanda under the bus," he stated, emphasizing his commitment to Knox's innocence.

When Sollecito reconnected with Knox after their first appeal, he described the emotional weight of seeing her again.

"When I look at her I get stuck a little bit... I realized that Amanda is the Amanda that I dated for that week," he recalled in a 2012 interview.

Both Knox and Sollecito have since moved forward with their lives. Knox married author Christopher Robinson in February 2020, and the couple now shares two children.

Meanwhile, Sollecito pursued a career as a software engineer, relocating to Milan to run his own business. He announced his engagement to Andreea Mihaela Burtea but details on their current relationship status remain unclear. In his 2012 memoir, Honor Bound: My Journey to H--- and Back with Amanda Knox, Sollecito reflected on stepping back from the public eye post-appeal.

"Even though Amanda and I shared the same unjust fate, the case was always about her," he wrote.

Over the years, Knox and Sollecito have occasionally reunited publicly, most recently spotlighted at the world premiere of Hulu's docudrama The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox in New York City in August.

Together, they posed with actors Grace Van Patten and Giuseppe De Domenico to promote the streaming series inspired by Knox's memoir, Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir.