B. Smith deserves better than this.
At least that’s the prevailing sentiment surrounding the iconic model, author, television host and restaurateur who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 69.
But it’s not the disease that her fans and many on television and social media are angry about. It’s a video her husband, Dan Gasby, shared on Facebook that has the masses up in arms.
Gasby, 64, introduces the world to 53-year-old Alexandra Lerner — his live-in girlfriend — in the video. The three share meals and talks together, but it’s quite obvious that because of the disease, B. Smith simply is unaware about her husband’s apparent infidelity.
“Wow,” wrote one social media user.
“I just watched the video of B. Smith, her husband, and his girlfriend … Listen. This is foul. Straight up. I’m not unsympathetic to the heaviness and loneliness of caring for a spouse with Alzheimer’s and dementia, but this is a whole other level of foul,” the commenter wrote with the user name @latintaesnegra.
Twitter user @SomePeculiar wrote: “I don’t have a problem with B. Smith’s husband having a girlfriend. I have a problem with his girlfriend living in the house. I wonder if this was something B agreed he could do before her mind went away.”
@Korafbaby went all-in on Gasby: “B. Smith’s husband is trash. Point blank. Married is still married.”
On ABC’s “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg also was none too pleased.
“I didn’t need that video at all,” Goldberg said. “That’s my personal feeling. I didn’t need to see that. I wouldn’t want that done to me. Don’t let anyone do it to me.”
Smith, whose popular Union Station restaurant in D.C. often catered to top politicians and celebrities, was diagnosed four years ago with Alzheimer’s disease.
She and Gasby have been married for 26 years and while she doesn’t have any children, Gasby has a daughter who appears in some photos with her father, Lerner and Smith.
Gasby defended his actions.
“I love my wife but I can’t let her take away my life!” he wrote in a Facebook post. “Five to 10 years from now when many of you who will have an almost predestined meeting with Alzheimer’s because of genetics, obesity, and a myriad of inflammatory diseases, you’ll be wishing for someone to share moments with and ease the pain of loneliness and despair.”
Lerner also defended their unholy union on “The Dr. Oz Show.”
“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,” Lerner said. “She needs 24-hour care.”
Gasby jumped back in.
“All the ones that know B. are extremely supportive, extremely supportive, have no problems with it,” he 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.”
Sunny Hostin, a co-host with Goldberg on “The View,” said she has enjoyed a close relationship with both Gasby and B. Smith and she took the video personally.
“I find it very disrespectful that he’s with his wife and is being disrespectful with his girlfriend in their home,” Hostin said. “I know how difficult it is to live with someone with Alzheimer’s because I lived with my grandmother who had it and a person has to have their dignity.”
