diff --git a/src/gtk/textctrl.cpp b/src/gtk/textctrl.cpp
index 56f5848901..c3d56aaee2 100644
--- a/src/gtk/textctrl.cpp
+++ b/src/gtk/textctrl.cpp
@@ -1046,7 +1046,12 @@ void wxTextCtrl::WriteText( const wxString &text )
     wxCHECK_RET( m_text != NULL, wxT("invalid text ctrl") );
 
     if ( text.empty() )
+    {
+        // We don't need to actually do anything, but we still need to generate
+        // an event expected from this call.
+        SendTextUpdatedEvent(this);
         return;
+    }
 
     // we're changing the text programmatically
     DontMarkDirtyOnNextChange();
diff --git a/tests/controls/textentrytest.cpp b/tests/controls/textentrytest.cpp
index b5c4fddfe9..96b121de84 100644
--- a/tests/controls/textentrytest.cpp
+++ b/tests/controls/textentrytest.cpp
@@ -57,6 +57,10 @@ void TextEntryTestCase::TextChangeEvents()
     CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( 1, updated.GetCount() );
     updated.Clear();
 
+    entry->SetValue("");
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( 1, updated.GetCount() );
+    updated.Clear();
+
     entry->ChangeValue("bar");
     CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( 0, updated.GetCount() );