diff --git a/Objects/templateobject.c b/Objects/templateobject.c
index ac38e4de435..37cc8e371e7 100644
--- a/Objects/templateobject.c
+++ b/Objects/templateobject.c
@@ -148,7 +148,6 @@ template_new(PyTypeObject *type, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
             if (last_was_str) {
                 PyObject *laststring = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(strings, stringsidx - 1);
                 PyObject *concat = PyUnicode_Concat(laststring, item);
-                Py_DECREF(laststring);
                 if (!concat) {
                     Py_DECREF(strings);
                     Py_DECREF(interpolations);