diff --git a/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py b/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
index b9e7937b0bbc00..221545b315fa44 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
@@ -536,7 +536,9 @@ def test_iterparse(self):
         iterparse = ET.iterparse
 
         context = iterparse(SIMPLE_XMLFILE)
+        self.assertIsNone(context.root)
         action, elem = next(context)
+        self.assertIsNone(context.root)
         self.assertEqual((action, elem.tag), ('end', 'element'))
         self.assertEqual([(action, elem.tag) for action, elem in context], [
                 ('end', 'element'),
diff --git a/Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py b/Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py
index ae6575028be11c..bb7362d1634a72 100644
--- a/Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py
+++ b/Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py
@@ -1256,8 +1256,8 @@ def __del__(self):
                 source.close()
 
     it = IterParseIterator()
+    it.root = None
     wr = weakref.ref(it)
-    del IterParseIterator
     return it