Martha Stewart is saying she doesn’t need to apologize to Craig Melvin for claiming he was the reason she switched her costume to a homeless person for Halloween … insisting it was all a joke!

We got Martha as she was walking into “TODAY” … and she tells us she already spoke to Craig about it.

The retail businesswoman says that he’s OK … and on top of that, she surprisingly claims she hasn’t received any hate in her inbox from the fallout over the controversial costume.

We reported earlier … Martha told a crowd at an event in Orlando this week that Craig has spilled chocolate all over a sweater that she was going to use for her planned Halloween costume.

With 10 minutes to quick-change into another costume … the only idea Martha said she could come up with was a “bum.”

Martha previously apologized for the insensitive costume … but in contradiction to what she said in Orlando, she claimed she intentionally wore the offensive get-up as a way to bring awareness to the issue.