Melania Trump has explained the real reason she swatted away husband Donald Trump's hand during a trip to Israel.

The moment at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport sparked a media frenzy after it took place in May 2017.

At the time, video showed Melania clearly bat Trump's hand away while walking a half-step behind him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara.

But now Melania has quashed speculation the gesture was indicative of the state of her marriage and chalked it up to a questions of logistics.

'The red carpet simply could not accommodate four of us abreast,' she writes, in an excerpt obtained by the New York Times.  'It was a minor innocent gesture, nothing more.' 

The incident was addressed by the former First Lady as part of her memoir, Melania, which is due to be published on October 8.

The book addresses a number of controversies she weathered during her husband's time in office.

They include a fashion faux pas the former First Lady made by wearing a jacket bearing the slogan, 'I really don't care, do you?' while visiting migrant children in Texas.

In her book, Melania explains the message was intended to be a barb at the media, who she accused of twisting narratives.

The former First Lady explained that she personally lobbied her husband to end his policy of splitting up families at the southern border which had led to the detention of thousands of migrant children. 

'The government should not be taking children away from their parents,' she recalls telling him. 'This has to stop.' 

One of the biggest revelations was her affirmation of abortion rights, which stands in contrast to Trump's conservative stance. 

 'A woman's fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes,' she writes. 

'Restricting a woman's right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body.' 

On most other issues however, she appears to hold similar views to her husband's including casting aspersions on the validity of the 2020 election result.

'You can't continue to count votes for days, which is what they did,' she writes, seeming to explain her lack of condemnation for the January 6 storming of the Capitol.

She also speaks on more personal topics, such as the impact of rumors that her son Barron Trump has autism which were fueled by Trump critic Rosie O'Donnell in 2016.

Melania outright denied the claims and spoke of her hurt about her son being dragged into the spotlight. 

'There is nothing shameful about autism (though O'Donnell's tweet implied that there was), but Barron is not autistic,' she writes, according to an extract on the Daily Beast.

'I was appalled by such cruelty,' Melania continues. 'It was clear to me that she was not interested in raising awareness about autism. I felt that she was attacking my son because she didn't like my husband.' 

Melania has often tried to maintain some privacy for her family and has so far taken a back seat for her husband's campaign.

Trump previously told DailyMail.com his wife care a lot about the country but that he is hesitant to thrust her or any of his family onto the stage considering the two attempts on his life.

'It's not nasty for Democrats like it is for me. And I would like to have my family not have to go out there and go in front of some of the things that you know happen,' he said.