A sobbing Amanda Knox got a hero’s welcome in Seattle last night following almost four years in an Italian prison after being accused and convicted of helping murder her roommate in a drug-fueled sex romp.
“They’re reminding me to speak in English — I’ve been having problems with that,’’ the 24-year-old, former foreign-exchange student admitted to a throng of supporters gathered at the airport.
She broke down in tears amid chants of, “Welcome home, Amanda!’’ and “We love Amanda!’’
“I’m really overwhelmed right now. I was looking down from the airplane and it seemed like everything wasn’t real,’’ Knox said in what amounted to her first public statements since her release Monday after an appeals court overturned her conviction.
“What’s important for me to say is just thank you to everyone who has believed in me, who has defended me, who has supported my family. My family is the most important thing to me right now, and I just want to go and be with them.”
Knox clutched mom Edda Mellas’ hand, and her sister, Deanna, stroked her bent head.
The homecoming followed a whirlwind day that began with Knox boarding a plane in Rome for London before heading on to Seattle.
One of the first things on her agenda is a 21st-birthday party, thrown by her friends, since she missed having one while in jail.
Knox’s sister said she plans to take her to a Seattle park to paint — a favorite hobby of Amanda’s.
“We’re going to go down to Lincoln Park, which is right by our house,” Deanna told ABC News.
The family’s lawyer, Theodore Simon, mentioned Knox’s slain roommate, Meredith Kercher, who was butchered in their shared villa in Perugia in 2007.
A local druggie-drifter, Rudy Guede, is in prison in Perugia for killing Kercher, but authorities still believe he had help.
“Meredith was Amanda’s friend,’’ Simon said. “And I know Amanda and her family wants you to remember Meredith and keep the Kercher family in your prayers.”
Knox’s conviction, as well as that of her Italian ex-lover, Raffaello Sollecito, 27, were tossed after their lawyers undercut the quality of DNA and other prosecution evidence. Italian prosecutors vowed to appeal.
After Knox left the Italian courtroom, she briefly returned to prison to collect her belongings. “All the prisoners, 500 to 600 of them, started to greet Amanda from the windows, like soccer stardom,” Corrado Maria Daclon of the USA Italy Foundation, told ABC.
Meanwhile, some experts predicted Knox would make millions if she sells her made-for-Hollywood saga.
“Her story will fetch top dollar,’’ California defense lawyer David Wohl told FoxNews.com.
“The first interview will go anywhere from $1 million to $5 million. I expect that book and movie rights will add substantially to that — tens of millions of dollars.’’
Fordham University communications professor Paul Levinson told The Post that “most Americans believe that Amanda is innocent, so there’s no moral ambiguity’’ about media outlets paying big bucks for her story.
“I think she will make a lot of money.’’