The family of AMANDA KNOX's Italian boyfriend has pulled the plug on their romance, shattering her plan to marry him and start a family, insiders say.
Sources in Italy tell The ENQUIRER that Dr. Francesco Sollecito – the father of Amanda’s lover Raffaele, 27 – wants him to forget the 24-year-old American beauty and start a new life with a woman from his own country.
“Amanda is crushed,” an insider told The ENQUIRER. “She’d invited him by e-mail to come visit her at her home in Seattle and was expecting him for Christmas.”
But according to a source close to the Sollecito family, Raffaele’s father said: “I’d prefer that he finds a good Italian girl from among his circle of friends here.”
As The ENQUIRER recently reported, Amanda and Raffaele exchanged secret love letters during their four years behind bars in Italy.
After an appeals court threw out their convictions for the murder of her roommate – British exchange student Meredith Kercher – Amanda pledged to marry Raff and have his baby.
But Raffaele’s father, a wealthy urologist, is determined to end the romance, said the source.
“Dr. Sollecito told a friend, ‘There’s only going to be pain in that direction,’” revealed the source.
Raffaele – now living with his family near Bari in southern Italy – is heartsick over his father’s decision, continued the source.
“Raff has admitted to his family that he fell in love with Amanda and lost his virginity to her,” the source divulged.
“He still writes to her and it’s clear that he wants to pick up where they left off before going to jail.
“Now he desperately wants to spend Christmas with her but does not want a family feud to erupt.”
Raffaele met Amanda at a classical music concert in 2007, and the two dated for just one week before they were arrested and charged with Kercher’s murder.
However, in that one week, their passion quickly grew into an intense love – a love that the Sollecito family wants to extinguish.
“Raff’s family partly blames Amanda for his prison ordeal,” the source confided.
They felt that Raffaele was caught in the middle of some sort of vendetta Italian prosecutor Dr. Giuliano Mignini had for Amanda.
Amanda is devastated that Raffaele’s family is trying to pour cold water on their relationship, according to a friend.
“She plans on writing to Raff’s father and explain she’s not the vixen the world made her out to be,” said the friend.
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