Front Strut replacement?

Replacing the front struts on my car listed above. Finally got the driver side out. It’s very straight forward. Remove the one top nut followed by the two bolts on bottom and slide out. Slide the new one in and button it up.

My problem is (and was on the driver's side) my passenger side is equally difficult. The top nut spins with the struts shaft/bolt that it feeds. I’ve tried holding it with pliers, open ended wrenches, ratchet wrench, I can’t get the nut to come off. I ended up using a rotary tool to cut the nut/shaft out. I’d rather not do that again. Any suggestions?