diff --git a/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/fabric/FabricUIManagerBinding.cpp b/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/fabric/FabricUIManagerBinding.cpp
index 67d4e124ef18..f7a13acc1791 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/fabric/FabricUIManagerBinding.cpp
+++ b/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/fabric/FabricUIManagerBinding.cpp
@@ -226,9 +226,18 @@ jfloatArray FabricUIManagerBinding::findNextFocusableElementMetrics(
   std::shared_ptr<UIManager> uimanager = getScheduler()->getUIManager();
 
   parentShadowNode = uimanager->findShadowNodeByTag_DEPRECATED(parentTag);
+
+  if (parentShadowNode == nullptr) {
+    return nullptr;
+  }
+
   focusedShadowNode = FocusOrderingHelper::findShadowNodeByTagRecursively(
       parentShadowNode, focusedTag);
 
+  if (focusedShadowNode == nullptr) {
+    return nullptr;
+  }
+
   LayoutMetrics childLayoutMetrics = uimanager->getRelativeLayoutMetrics(
       *focusedShadowNode, parentShadowNode.get(), {.includeTransform = true});