Amanda Knox faces backlash for crowdfunding her wedding: 'I'm a figure to be demonized'

Amanda Knox, who was absolved of the 2007 murder of her roommate in Italy, is getting married next year. Recently, Knox and her fiance, Christopher Robinson, created and shared their interstellar wedding website.

The wedding, in accordance with Robinson's proposal, will be space-themed. Featuring costumes, props, time travel, a live band, makeup, projectors and more. Knox is even creating her own dress, which she said may include spikes and LED lights.

But the theme isn't the only out-of-the-ordinary thing about their wedding site. In lieu of gifts, the couple has asked family and friends to pitch in to help put on their special day.

"Let's face it, we don't need any more stuff. What we do need is help putting on the best party ever for our family and friends!" they wrote on their wedding site. The couple embraces the "it takes a village" philosophy, she said.

Traditional registries, Knox told USA TODAY, made sense when a couple was first moving in together after getting married and had the need for new appliances, dishes and other supplies. Robinson said they don't need anyone to get them a new toaster.

There are options on the site to contribute $25, $50, $100 and up to $10,000, but the higher sums were not meant to be serious asks, the couple said.

Knox said that while their intent was only for wedding guests to see the registry, it has spread across the internet and spurred an adverse reaction and quite the conversation about crowdfunding weddings.

"To clarify, we never were asking strangers for money," Knox said. "It's been really frustrating because that's the way everyone has been portraying this."

She sent a tweet to her followers announcing her upcoming out-of-this-world nuptials. The couple wrote out a science-fiction style version of their love story titled "The Knox Robinson Coalescence."

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She never shared the link to the registry itself, she said, but they did leave the page public. Since sharing, Knox said she has received countless negative messages.

"People are flooding our inbox with vile things," Robinson told USA TODAY. "Whatever Amanda does they find a way to spin it."

In a piece from the Daily Beast, correspondent-at-large Barbie Latza Nadeau, who published a book about Knox, wrote that Knox's perceived crowdfunding "can only be described as self-serving narcissism."

Knox said she normally ignores comments that come along whenever she posts or negative things that are said about her in the media. But now, it's not only affecting her. It's impacting her family and fiance, too.

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"It's just kind of upsetting to me that, once again, there is this practice of deciding that I'm a figure to be demonized," she said. "It's not even news."

Other issues, she said, like women's health and wrongful imprisonment among others, should be the focus of the media.

"It's kind of insulting to all of the things that are actually out there," Knox said. "The last thing that we should be flooding the airwaves with is outrage over what Chris' and my registry is."

Regardless, they said that the wedding, which is set to take place on Leap Day, February 29, 2020, will be a day to remember with family and friends and fun.

Follow Morgan Hines on Twitter: @MorganEmHines.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Amanda Knox responds to backlash over crowdfunded space-themed wedding