Is The Perfect Mother Based On a True Story?

Diksha Sundriyal of Is The Perfect Mother Based On a True Story? Diksha Sundriyal
June 3, 2022

Netflix’s ‘The Perfect Mother’ follows the story of a woman who discovers the dark and manipulative side of her daughter. It explores the implications of blind love for one’s children and how damaging such dedication can be. In four episodes, the show goes through a lot of twists and turns, and the shocking ending makes us wonder if such a thing could be possible in reality. Was Anya’s case pulled out from real life? Here’s all that we know about the origin of the Netflix series.

Is The Perfect Mother a True Story?

Netflix’s ‘The Perfect Mother’ is based on the book of the same name by Nina Darnton. It follows the story of Emma, an American exchange student in Spain, who is accused of killing a man. Emma’s mother, Jennifer, flies to Spain to bring her daughter back home. She is certain that Emma had nothing to do with this brutal crime. However, as she digs into the details, Jennifer discovers that her daughter is not the perfect girl she believed her to be.

The novel is inspired by the infamous Amanda Knox trial, though it focuses more on the intricacies of a parent’s relationship with their child. The book relies heavily on the emotional conflict faced by Jennifer, who slowly begins to doubt Emma’s innocence. The show makes a few changes, like setting the story in France and giving a different backstory to Emma. The book features Roberto Ortiz, a lawyer and private detective, who doesn’t have a prior connection to Jennifer. The show, however, creates a link between Helene and Vincent by giving them a romantic past. In the book, Emma’s boyfriend is a drug dealer, while in the show, Anya’s boyfriend is an illegal immigrant.

Darton admitted that she had been fascinated by Amanda Knox’s story, especially from the point of view of her mother. She explored that scenario in her head and imagined the worse that could come out of such a situation. Another thing she wanted to focus on was the pressure on women to be the perfect mothers. She wanted to explore the ramifications of such an image being thrust on women and how it could affect them and their children.

Who is Amanda Knox?

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Amanda Knox was 20 years old in 2007, when her flatmate, Meredith Kercher, was murdered in Perugia, Italy. The night of the murder, Knox had been with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. The next morning, she returned to her flat to find blood in the bathroom and Kercher dead in her bedroom.

The case quickly caught media attention and soon, Knox became a prime suspect. After repeated rigorous interrogations, Knox implicated herself in the murder by admitting that she’d been at her apartment the night of the murder. However, she later disclosed that she was forced to make that statement by the cops who’d grossly mistreated her during the interrogation and had been hostile towards her since the beginning. Knox and Sollecito were convicted in the initial trial, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Simultaneously, a man named Rudy Guede was arrested as well. His fingerprints were discovered at the crime scene. Later, he was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

It wasn’t until Knox had spent almost four years in prison that her wrongful conviction was overturned. There were still some legal upheavals, but in 2015, the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation acquitted her of all charges, stating that she didn’t receive proper legal aid and that the evidence wasn’t enough to prove her guilty. By that time, however, Knox’s public image had suffered immensely. Before and during the trial, she was portrayed in an intensely negative light, with the media coming up with all sorts of monikers for her. She has, since, tried to shrug off the negativity.

Where is Amanda Knox Now?

Since her return to the States, Knox has tried to resume her life under the constant scrutiny of the paparazzi. She has been working as an activist, working with organizations such as The Innocence Project for the wrongfully accused. She has authored a bestseller book, ‘Waiting to Be Heard’. She hosts podcasts: The Truth About True Crime and Labyrinths, which she hosts with her husband, Christopher Robinson. She has also spoken out against her character assassination, as well as, about the films, TV shows, and books that profit off of her story. She recently talked about Matt Damon’s ‘Stillwater’ in The Atlantic.

She was also not happy with the Netflix show, ‘The Perfect Mother’, calling it out for painting her as “manipulative and guilty of murder”.

In 2021, Knox welcomed her daughter, Eureka, into the world, and talked with The New York Times in detail about her experience and how the wrongful conviction affected her.

Read More: Best True Crime Documentaries On Netflix

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