diff --git a/interface/wx/dc.h b/interface/wx/dc.h
index 114b9cc951..527d97eb64 100644
--- a/interface/wx/dc.h
+++ b/interface/wx/dc.h
@@ -892,6 +892,12 @@ public:
         used for the text extent calculation, otherwise the currently selected
         font is used.
 
+        If @a string is empty, its horizontal extent is 0 but, for convenience
+        when using this function for allocating enough space for a possibly
+        multi-line string, its vertical extent is the same as the height of an
+        empty line of text. Please note that this behaviour differs from that
+        of GetTextExtent().
+
         @note This function works with both single-line and multi-line strings.
 
         @beginWxPerlOnly
diff --git a/src/common/textmeasurecmn.cpp b/src/common/textmeasurecmn.cpp
index e060fb18b5..8ad8e0a312 100644
--- a/src/common/textmeasurecmn.cpp
+++ b/src/common/textmeasurecmn.cpp
@@ -129,7 +129,13 @@ void wxTextMeasureBase::GetMultiLineTextExtent(const wxString& text,
     // actually multiline specially here, to skip iteration above in this case.
     if ( text.find('\n') == wxString::npos )
     {
-        CallGetTextExtent(text, width, height);
+        // This case needs to be handled specially as we're supposed to return
+        // a non-zero height even for empty string.
+        if ( text.empty() )
+            *height = GetEmptyLineHeight();
+        else
+            CallGetTextExtent(text, width, height);
+
         if ( heightOneLine )
             *heightOneLine = *height;
         return;
diff --git a/tests/graphics/measuring.cpp b/tests/graphics/measuring.cpp
index ad654cfe96..bb185247af 100644
--- a/tests/graphics/measuring.cpp
+++ b/tests/graphics/measuring.cpp
@@ -77,6 +77,12 @@ TEST_CASE("wxDC::GetTextExtent", "[dc][text-extent]")
 
     CHECK( dc.GetMultiLineTextExtent("Good\nbye").y >= 2*sz.y );
 
+    // Check that empty lines get counted
+    CHECK( dc.GetMultiLineTextExtent("\n\n\n").y >= 3*sz.y );
+
+    // And even empty strings count like one line.
+    CHECK( dc.GetMultiLineTextExtent(wxString()) == wxSize(0, sz.y) );
+
     // Test the functions with some other DC kinds also.
 #if wxUSE_PRINTING_ARCHITECTURE && wxUSE_POSTSCRIPT
     wxPostScriptDC psdc;