diff --git a/Include/internal/pycore_object.h b/Include/internal/pycore_object.h
index fa789611133a6f..4caa323a15a420 100644
--- a/Include/internal/pycore_object.h
+++ b/Include/internal/pycore_object.h
@@ -266,8 +266,9 @@ _PyObject_Init(PyObject *op, PyTypeObject *typeobj)
 {
     assert(op != NULL);
     Py_SET_TYPE(op, typeobj);
-    assert(_PyType_HasFeature(typeobj, Py_TPFLAGS_HEAPTYPE) || _Py_IsImmortal(typeobj));
-    Py_INCREF(typeobj);
+    if (_PyType_HasFeature(typeobj, Py_TPFLAGS_HEAPTYPE) || _Py_IsImmortal(typeobj)) {
+        Py_INCREF(typeobj);
+    }
     _Py_NewReference(op);
 }
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2024-07-10-03-13-19.gh-issue-121528._Bo7rw.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2024-07-10-03-13-19.gh-issue-121528._Bo7rw.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..f571f5961b2805
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2024-07-10-03-13-19.gh-issue-121528._Bo7rw.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix crash when loading extension modules that are compiled with an older
+version of Python.