Amanda Knox Family Still Battling Rumors and News Stories

Raffaele Sollecito's dad denies reports of daily contact between son and Knox.

ByABC News
October 27, 2011, 11:34 AM

Oct. 27, 2011— -- Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are not planning to marry and start a family. Nor are they in daily contact by phone and letters. There is no pre-Christmas visit in the works. And Knox is also not being sued for $12 million.

"I can assure you that it's absolute nonsense," said Lyle Kercher, the brother of Knox's roommate Meredith Kercher, referring to British tabloid reports that he and his family intended to sue Knox.

"I'm not even sure where these fantastical ideas come from sometimes," he told KING TV in Seattle.

Knox and Sollecito have been the subject of many news stories since their murder convictions were vacated by an Italian appeals court earlier this month.

Both families have adopted low profiles while Knox, 24, and Sollecito, 27, try to adapt to normal life after four years in an Italian prison.

Knox remains home with her family in Seattle, where paparazzi still follow her daily despite the family's pleas for privacy. Sollecito also had reporters camped outside his home for days after the acquittal.

That hasn't stopped a barrage of stories that the family has felt compelled to deny.

The latest came this week when the Italian magazine, OGGI, reported an interview they claimed was with Sollecito, even quoting him directly saying, "We talk on the phone or write to each other every day. We have so many things to say to each other having passed four years in a circle of hell that crushed us."

Those quotes were picked up widely by British and American tabloid newspapers as an indication that their brief fling before Kercher's murder had the potential to be rekindled.

But it was all a lie, according to Raffaele's father. Francesco Sollecito spoke to ABC News from his home in Bari, Italy, where his son is now living.

"Raffaele has not spoken to any reporters since being released, and he will not anytime soon," Sollecito's father said.

Francesco Sollecito said that he spoke to OGGI magazine, but only about details of the case and not about Amanda Knox and his son speaking to each other daily.

"I did not talk about any communications between Amanda and my son. I have no idea if they speak every day. I don't talk to Raffaele about those details, but he has a computer in his room so maybe they do communicate. But I do not know the extent of it," he said.

And the claims that his son is visiting Knox in Seattle before Christmas are not true either, Francesco Sollecito said.

"That is old information from when they were released and the Knox family extended the invite. We will go as a family to see the Knoxes at some point, but we have not set a date yet and are not planning to go before Christmas," the father said.

Earlier in the legal case while Knox was still in prison, OGGI reported an interview they claimed to have conducted with Knox. Her mother, Edda Mellas, says the reporter asked her about her daughter, but the magazine never spoke directly with Knox.

In response to the allegations of inaccurate reporting, OGGI told ABC News that their reporter did speak "directly and briefly" to Raffaele Sollecito "in a restaurant in Bisceglie, Italy." They also insist Mellas asked Amanda Knox questions on their behalf, which she relayed to them "word for word."

A word for word account would have been difficult since Knox's family was not to have anything, including paper and pencil, in a prison visitation room.

For the families of Knox and Sollecito, contending with news reports is nothing new.