Marlee Matlin Responds to Reports That Donald Trump Mocked Her for Being Deaf

Jennifer Drysdale
Updated

Marlee Matlin is speaking out.

The Oscar-winning actress took to Twitter on Friday to address recent reports that Donald Trump mocked her for being deaf during her stint as a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice, and referred to her "retarded."

Three longtime staffers who worked on the show's eleventh season -- in which Matlin placed second -- told The Daily Beast that Trump would make fun of her voice, and mock her disability both in front of her and behind her back.

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While Matlin did not confirm whether or not Trump had made insensitive remarks, she did seem to reveal who she would be voting for in November.

"Recent media reports have circulated that Donald Trump allegedly referred to me as 'retarded.' The term is abhorrent and should never be used," she wrote. "The fact that we are talking about this during a very important moment in American history has upset me deeply."

"I am Deaf," she continued. "There are millions of Deaf and hard of hearing people like me, in the United States and around the world who face discrimination and misunderstanding like this on a daily basis. It is unacceptable."

"So, what's my response?" she asked. "It's not about insults or taking each other down. As a person who is Deaf, as a woman, as a mom, as a wife, as an actor, I have a voice. And I'm using that voice to make myself heard…and vote."

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And if that wasn't clear enough, Matlin's Twitter is filled with messages supporting Hillary Clinton.

"I'm for my friend @HillaryClinton. If you're with her, let her know," she tweeted in January.

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Trump's treatment of women has been put under a microscope since last week's leak of a 2005 audio tape of the Republican nominee making lewd comments about women, including ET's Nancy O'Dell, with then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush.

Matlin's response comes on the heels of allegations by Richard Hatch earlier this week, in which he said he witnessed Trump during the taping of Celebrity Apprentice making sexual comments to both Matlin and Lisa Rinna.

"Watching him in the boardroom making sexual comments ... to all of the women on the Apprentice, it was obvious that that's just a part of who he is," Hatch told People. "It was obvious and it was grotesque. It was blatant and it was frequent. He did it with Lisa Rinna; He did it with Marlee Matlin. He did it with whomever happened to be there at the time."

The Survivor winner went on to claim that with Matlin, "No matter how she responded, no matter how politely, he would push it a step further with comments about her looks, and how she was making him feel, and about what he thought of her, and how happy he would be to do something with her."

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See more in the video below.

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