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Rosie O’Donnell Apologizes to Melania Trump for Barron Autism Tweet: ‘I Am Truly Sorry’

Better late than never? Rosie O’Donnell apologized to Melania Trump on Thursday, December 1, after retweeting a video speculating that her son Barron Trump may have autism.

Related: PHOTOS: Celebrities’ Biggest Social Media Fails

“I apologize to @melaniatrump – i was insensitive in my RT – i am sorry for the pain i caused – it was not my intent – i am truly sorry,” the former The View cohost tweeted on her now-private social media account.

Rosie O'Donnell Melania Trump
Rosie O’Donnell and Melania Trump

The comedian, 54, sparked backlash after she retweeted a video suggesting the 10-year-old son of President-Elect Donald Trump has the developmental disorder. “Barron Trump Autistic? If so — what an amazing opportunity to bring attention to the AUTISM epidemic,” O’Donnell wrote on November 21.

Related: PHOTOS: 12 Times Donald Trump Has Body-Shamed Stars Over the Years

Her comment quickly attracted a flood of criticism from Twitter users, who accused the A League of Their Own star of taking her bitter public feud with Trump out on his wife and child. In response, O’Donnell shared a poem about the controversy on her website on November 26, and revealed that her 3-year-old adopted daughter, Dakota, had recently been diagnosed with autism. “when i saw the anti-bullying video / that mentioned barron / it spoke to the symptoms many ASD kids have … 1 in 55 kids is an epidemic/ donald and i agree on that/ and not much else,” the mother-of-five wrote.

Donald Trump Barron Trump Melania Trump
Donald Trump, Barron Trump and Melania Trump at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York on November 8, 2016.

Related: PHOTOS: Celebrities Supporting Donald Trump for President

The controversial seven-minute clip, which included footage of Barron from Trump’s acceptance speech and campaign events, was compiled by YouTuber James Hunter, who took the video down and issued a formal apology after being faced with the threat of a lawsuit from Melania’s lawyer Charles J. Harder this week.

“I never ever meant this as a bullying video,” Hunter wrote on his YouTube page on November 29. “As someone who was diagnosed at age 5 and has gone through bullying myself, I would NEVER do something like that. I made this because I truly believed Barron was on the spectrum, and I wanted people to stop bullying him of his ‘weird’ behavior and explain to them that it might actually be due to a condition… I never meant to hurt anyone.”

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