diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-10-19-20-38-17.gh-issue-159739.fc0ed2.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-10-19-20-38-17.gh-issue-159739.fc0ed2.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..6a549a6ded5e6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-10-19-20-38-17.gh-issue-159739.fc0ed2.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Avoid a crash if allocation fails while creating a
+:class:`string.templatelib.Template` iterator.
diff --git a/Objects/templateobject.c b/Objects/templateobject.c
index 1609e82b444516..994b352d7dcd63 100644
--- a/Objects/templateobject.c
+++ b/Objects/templateobject.c
@@ -226,6 +226,8 @@ template_iter(PyObject *op)
     if (iter == NULL) {
         return NULL;
     }
+    iter->stringsiter = NULL;
+    iter->interpolationsiter = NULL;
 
     PyObject *stringsiter = PyObject_GetIter(self->strings);
     if (stringsiter == NULL) {