Alexandra Lerner said people are passing judgement on a situation they don’t understand.
The husband of lifestyle guru B. Smith’s husband and his girlfriend is defending their relationship, telling Dr. Mehmet Oz that people don't understand what Smith's condition is really like.
Smith is battling Alzheimer’s, and social media got in a tizzy because her husband of 26 years, 64-year-old Dan Gasby, has a new girlfriend. Alexandra Lerner, 53, even has a room in their elegant home.
Lerner said people are passing judgement on a situation they don’t understand and that Smith needs 24-hour care.
“What a lot of people don’t understand about Alzheimer’s [is that] B. now is really like a 4-year-old.. like a toddler in an adult body and can’t take care of herself at all,” she said. “She needs 24-hour care.”
Smith was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s six years ago and Gasby has since become her full-time caretaker in their East Hampton, New York home. Lerner stays with the couple when she is not in her Manhattan home.
“All the ones that know B. are extremely supportive, extremely supportive, have no problems with it,” Gasby said. “The people, because she’s a celebrity, a personality quote, unquote, they weigh in, and what they do is they attach what they feel B. would. They attach their feelings as ‘Well, B. doesn’t know. She wouldn’t want this.’ Well, if B. knew, I wouldn’t be with Alex because she wouldn’t have Alzheimer’s.”
The Washington Post profiled the couple's living arrangements earlier this month, and Gasby and Lerner said they have since gotten death threats.
“I mean, we’ve had death threats,” he told Dr. Oz. “I mean, we’ve had people just do all kind of crazy things. They’ve never been to our restaurants. We don’t know them. They make all kind of racial innuendos.”
The full interviews airs on “The Dr. Oz Show” Tuesday.
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