diff --git a/include/wx/gtk/textctrl.h b/include/wx/gtk/textctrl.h
index 9f1c6eddd2..f22b710ee5 100644
--- a/include/wx/gtk/textctrl.h
+++ b/include/wx/gtk/textctrl.h
@@ -167,6 +167,9 @@ public:
     // should we mark the control as dirty? always resets the flag
     bool MarkDirtyOnChange();
 
+    // always let GTK have mouse release events for multiline controls
+    virtual bool GTKProcessEvent(wxEvent& event) const;
+
 
     static wxVisualAttributes
     GetClassDefaultAttributes(wxWindowVariant variant = wxWINDOW_VARIANT_NORMAL);
diff --git a/src/gtk/textctrl.cpp b/src/gtk/textctrl.cpp
index cd4b62035b..703ceccd9c 100644
--- a/src/gtk/textctrl.cpp
+++ b/src/gtk/textctrl.cpp
@@ -1817,6 +1817,18 @@ void wxTextCtrl::OnUrlMouseEvent(wxMouseEvent& event)
     GetEventHandler()->ProcessEvent(url_event);
 }
 
+bool wxTextCtrl::GTKProcessEvent(wxEvent& event) const
+{
+    bool rc = wxTextCtrlBase::GTKProcessEvent(event);
+
+    // GtkTextView starts a drag operation when left mouse button is pressed
+    // and ends it when it is released and if it doesn't get the release event
+    // the next click on a control results in an assertion failure inside
+    // gtk_text_view_start_selection_drag() which simply *kills* the program
+    // without anything we can do about it, so always let GTK+ have this event
+    return rc && (IsSingleLine() || event.GetEventType() != wxEVT_LEFT_UP);
+}
+
 // static
 wxVisualAttributes
 wxTextCtrl::GetClassDefaultAttributes(wxWindowVariant WXUNUSED(variant))