diff --git a/src/wp-includes/widgets.php b/src/wp-includes/widgets.php
index 32d8a95e1b..0b76753a9d 100644
--- a/src/wp-includes/widgets.php
+++ b/src/wp-includes/widgets.php
@@ -634,7 +634,6 @@ function _register_widget_update_callback( $id_base, $update_callback, $options
  *                                  Default empty array.
  * @param mixed      ...$params     Optional additional parameters to pass to the callback function when it's called.
  */
-
 function _register_widget_form_callback( $id, $name, $form_callback, $options = array(), ...$params ) {
 	global $wp_registered_widget_controls;
 
@@ -1635,19 +1634,23 @@ function wp_widget_rss_output( $rss, $args = array() ) {
 			$title = __( 'Untitled' );
 		}
 
-		$desc = html_entity_decode( $item->get_description(), ENT_QUOTES, get_option( 'blog_charset' ) );
-		$desc = esc_attr( wp_trim_words( $desc, 55, ' […]' ) );
-
 		$summary = '';
-		if ( $show_summary ) {
-			$summary = $desc;
 
-			// Change existing [...] to […].
-			if ( str_ends_with( $summary, '[...]' ) ) {
-				$summary = substr( $summary, 0, -5 ) . '[…]';
-			}
+		if ( ! is_null( $item->get_description() ) ) {
+
+			$desc = html_entity_decode( $item->get_description(), ENT_QUOTES, get_option( 'blog_charset' ) );
+			$desc = esc_attr( wp_trim_words( $desc, 55, ' […]' ) );
 
-			$summary = '<div class="rssSummary">' . esc_html( $summary ) . '</div>';
+			if ( $show_summary ) {
+				$summary = $desc;
+
+				// Change existing [...] to [&hellip;].
+				if ( str_ends_with( $summary, '[...]' ) ) {
+					$summary = substr( $summary, 0, -5 ) . '[&hellip;]';
+				}
+
+				$summary = '<div class="rssSummary">' . esc_html( $summary ) . '</div>';
+			}
 		}
 
 		$date = '';