BEST-SELLING Australian author Mem Fox may never return to the United States after being detained by immigration officials at Los Angeles Airport, saying she has never been “treated with such disdain”.

“I felt like I had been physically assaulted which is why, when I got to my hotel room, I completely collapsed and sobbed like a baby. And I’m 70 years old,” she told the ABC.

Ms Fox has received an apology after lodging complaints with the Australian embassy in Washington and the United States embassy in Canberra.

However she says she is unlikely to return to America after the experience earlier this month.

She told the ABC she was questioned for two hours by customs officers who appeared to have been given “turbocharged power” by President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration.

“I have never in my life been spoken to with such insolence, treated with such disdain, with so many insults and with so much gratuitous impoliteness,” she said.

Ms Fox said she was questioned over her visa, despite having travelled to America 116 times before without incident. She was eventually granted access to the country.

She is the author of several best-selling children’s books including Possum Magic, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Wombat Divine and Where is the Green Sheep?