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Dan Gasby, the husband of famed restaurateur B. Smith, believes race plays a role in the backlash he received after revealing his relationship with another woman while caring for his ailing wife.

Gasby, 64, revealed in December that he and Alex Lerner, 53, who is white, were in a romantic relationship and caring for his wife who has Alzheimer’s disease.

RELATED: Dan Gasby and B. Smith talk about their book “Before I Forget.” 

News of the peculiar dynamic sparked outrage from B. Smith fans.

Dan and Alex sat down with Al Roker in a new interview for the TODAY show and he blamed his lover’s race for the backlash and death threats he has received.

“The 800-pound gorilla in this situation is she’s white. I’m not supposed to be conscripted to somebody because of their race,” he tells Roker.

When asked why he felt to need to go public with the relationship, Gasby said: “Because that’s what Barbara [B. Smith] asked me to do, to talk about it. It spun out of control to ‘I’m having an affair. This woman, because of who she is, is taking B’s money. We’re abusing B. B wouldn’t want this.’ These people have never even talked to B.”

Gasby also appeared on The View with Lerner in the audience to talk to Sonny Hostin, who knew both Gasby and Smith before Smith’s decline into Alzheimer’s. Hostin’s family took  care of her grandmother when her grandmother was suffering from Alzheimer’s and she has been critical of Gasby.

Meanwhile, ABC7 anchorman Paul Wharton, a close friend of B. Smith and her husband, has had enough of Gasby selling their story. So he appeared on ABC’s Good Morning Washington on Wednesday and spilled the juiciest of tea of about Dan and his mistress.

Per SandraRose:

Wharton, who has known Smith for many years, shared exclusive video he recorded at a pool party in the Hamptons last year.The video shows Gasby and Lerner making out in the pool in the background. Wharton says he was unaware Gasby and Lerner were a romantic couple.“I’m thinking that they just came as friends,” said Wharton, who admits he low-key recorded the pair cavorting in the pool without their knowledge.

Wharton said “all bets were off” after Gasby sold his and Smith’s story to PEOPLE magazine.

He described an incident he witnessed in Smith’s home when Lerner “chastised” Smith by smacking her hand.

“And I grabbed Alex’s hand, and I said, ‘Alex, you know you really can’t do that,’” Wharton recalled.

Wharton also said he saw Lerner “slap the heck out of Dan” after he said that Smith was the kindest, sweetest woman he’d ever met.

Wharton quoted Lerner saying, “I’m sitting here, and you’re saying that B is the kindest, sweetest woman you ever met?”

Wharton said he reminded Lerner that Smith is still Gasby’s wife.

PHOTO: Courtesy

 

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