Melania Trump breaks her silence on rumors that Barron is autistic

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Melania Trump has broken her silence on the rumor that Barron Trump was autistic and revealed how her son was bullied after it spread online in 2016.

The former first lady tells her side of the story in her memoir Melaniawhich is scheduled to hit shelves on Tuesday.

In 2016, TV personality Rosie O'Donnell – who has a long-standing feud with Donald Trump – re-shared a video of Barron speculating that he was showing signs of autism.

Barron – whom Melania largely tried to protect from the public – was ten years old at the time.

The video and O'Donnell's post went viral.

“Barron Trump autistic?” O'Donnell commented on the video in a 2016 post on Twitter. “If so – what a great opportunity to raise awareness of the AUTISM epidemic.”

Her memoir states an advance copy obtained byThe daily beast, Melania describes how the ordeal caused “irreparable damage” to her son and suggests it caused him to be bullied in real life.

“Barron’s experience of being bullied both online and in real life following the incident is a clear indication of the irreparable damage that was caused,” Melania writes.

“There's nothing shameful about autism (although O'Donnell's tweet suggested so), but Barron is not autistic,” Melania says, accusing O'Donnell of “pure malice.”

“I was horrified by this cruelty,” says Melania.

“It was clear to me that her point was not to raise awareness of autism. I felt like she was attacking my son because she didn’t like my husband.”

She then describes what happened in the viral video, which was removed from the original poster after Melania took legal action.

“Someone had carefully compiled the footage and added captions like, 'His hands move erratically and don't touch each other.' He was then seen making strange movements in his seat, typical of children with autism,” she writes.

Melania adds that it was “devastating as a mother” and she felt like her heart was “breaking into pieces.”

O'Donnell apologized and deleted the tweet after backlash. She said on her website that the tweet had “nothing to do with Donald.”

Her feud with the Republican presidential candidate goes back a long way.

It began in 2006, when they exchanged blows over Trump's decision to reinstate a Miss USA beauty pageant winner embroiled in a drug scandal.

Trump has also repeatedly called O'Donnell “disgusting.”

During a presidential debate against Hillary Clinton, Trump was asked about the language he used to describe women as “fat pigs” and “disgusting animals.”

“Just Rosie O'Donnell,” he replied.

Melania has been working on her memoirs for the past few weeks.

Perhaps the biggest revelation from the book is that Melania is pro-decision making – something that turns her against her husband.

“Why should anyone other than the woman have the power to decide what she does with her own body? “A woman’s fundamental right to individual freedom and her own life gives her the power to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes,” she writes.

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