Rosie O’Donnell Apologizes to Melania Trump for Sharing Video Suggesting Barron Has Autism
Rosie O’Donnell hates Donald Trump, but she is apologizing to his wife, Melania, for sharing a YouTube video speculating that their 10-year-old son has autism.
On Thursday, the onetime View co-host, 54, took to Twitter to apologize to the future first lady. The mother of five called her retweet “insensitive” and said she was “truly sorry” for the “pain” she caused, adding, “It was not my intent.” (Rosie was so serious about getting out her apology that she pinned the tweet to the top of her page.)
So here’s the backstory: Someone named James Hunter made a video speculating that Barron has the disorder based on some of the boy’s mannerisms captured on video at public events. Over the weekend, Rosie — the Donald’s longtime nemesis — retweeted the video because her own daughter has recently been diagnosed with autism and she found it “educational and informational.” Then on Monday, Melania’s attorney sent a letter to Hunter, saying the video falsely insinuates that Barron has autism and demanding that Hunter removed it or face a lawsuit.
Rosie was mentioned in the lawyer’s letter, according to TMZ. (“The video allegedly seeks to ‘stop the bullying’ of Barron Trump. Not true … The video did instigate further bullying by Rosie O’Donnell and others,” it said.) However, the attorney wasn’t threatening to sue Rosie. Melania just wanted the video taken off YouTube. So it seems Rosie wasn’t forced to apologize. She did it on her own.
As for the current status of the video, it has since been removed by Hunter. He told Gossip Cop he himself is on the spectrum, saying that he “never meant to hurt” the Trumps and “just wanted to bring light to the autism epidemic.” He posted an apology to the Trumps here. (For the record, the video can still be found on YouTube by other users who reposted it.)
The comedian said on Sunday, via a poem on her website, that the reason she shared the video in the first place is because her 3-year-old daughter Dakota was diagnosed with high functioning autism in September. Since then, “i have been immersed in that world/reality since / learning — reading — asking questions / it’s all autism — all the time / for the newly diagnosed / as we try to grab onto / anything to keep us standing the knowledge we r not alone / there r others living this too.”
She continued, “When i saw the anti bullying video / that mentioned barron / it spoke to the symptoms many ASD kids have / it was educational and informational / these symptoms so many do not understand / i thought — how amazing IF / IF it is true / IF it is true / i tweeted from my heart / it would help so much with the autism epidemic.”
Though, in true Rosie fashion, she made sure to work in a dig at Trump, calling him a “madman who thinks OUR country is his.”
However, while she hates the president-elect, she clearly feels bad about upsetting the future first lady.
