diff --git a/Objects/exceptions.c b/Objects/exceptions.c
index c6af82a4668550..3c4df2facfe2e2 100644
--- a/Objects/exceptions.c
+++ b/Objects/exceptions.c
@@ -1114,6 +1114,7 @@ exceptiongroup_split_recursive(PyObject *exc,
             assert(PyList_CheckExact(match_list));
             if (PyList_Append(match_list, rec_result.match) < 0) {
                 Py_DECREF(rec_result.match);
+                Py_XDECREF(rec_result.rest);
                 goto done;
             }
             Py_DECREF(rec_result.match);