diff --git a/Changes.md b/Changes.md
index 8618d1306c5..438c0d73876 100644
--- a/Changes.md
+++ b/Changes.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ Fixes
 -----
 
 - RenderMan : Fixed handling of `render:{name}` attributes, such as the `render:displayColor` attribute created by StandardAttributes, and `primvar:{name}` attributes loaded from USD files. These can now be accessed by PxrAttribute shaders as either `user:{name}` or just `{name}`.
+- MultiLineTextWidget : Fixed bug causing text selection highlighting to persist after the widget has lost focus.
 
 1.5.12.0 (relative to 1.5.11.0)
 ========
diff --git a/python/GafferUI/MultiLineTextWidget.py b/python/GafferUI/MultiLineTextWidget.py
index 1a7e316ec85..81275f5d407 100644
--- a/python/GafferUI/MultiLineTextWidget.py
+++ b/python/GafferUI/MultiLineTextWidget.py
@@ -587,6 +587,11 @@ def focusOutEvent( self, event ) :
 		if widget is not None :
 			widget._emitEditingFinished()
 
+		if event.reason() != QtCore.Qt.PopupFocusReason :
+			cursor = self.textCursor()
+			cursor.clearSelection()
+			self.setTextCursor( cursor )
+
 		QtWidgets.QPlainTextEdit.focusOutEvent( self, event )
 
 	def paintEvent( self, event ) :