diff --git a/Lib/test/test_capi/test_unicode.py b/Lib/test/test_capi/test_unicode.py
index 65d8242ad3f..3408c10f426 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_capi/test_unicode.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_capi/test_unicode.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import unittest
 import sys
 from test import support
-from test.support import import_helper
+from test.support import threading_helper
 
 try:
     import _testcapi
@@ -1005,6 +1005,24 @@ def test_asutf8(self):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, unicode_asutf8, [], 0)
         # CRASHES unicode_asutf8(NULL, 0)
 
+    @unittest.skipIf(_testcapi is None, 'need _testcapi module')
+    @threading_helper.requires_working_threading()
+    def test_asutf8_race(self):
+        """Test that there's no race condition in PyUnicode_AsUTF8()"""
+        unicode_asutf8 = _testcapi.unicode_asutf8
+        from threading import Thread
+
+        data = "😊"
+
+        def worker():
+            for _ in range(1000):
+                self.assertEqual(unicode_asutf8(data, 5), b'\xf0\x9f\x98\x8a\0')
+
+        threads = [Thread(target=worker) for _ in range(10)]
+        with threading_helper.start_threads(threads):
+            pass
+
+
     @support.cpython_only
     @unittest.skipIf(_testlimitedcapi is None, 'need _testlimitedcapi module')
     def test_asutf8andsize(self):
diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index 53be6f5b901..1aab9cf3776 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ NOTE: In the interpreter's initialization phase, some globals are currently
 
 static inline char* _PyUnicode_UTF8(PyObject *op)
 {
-    return (_PyCompactUnicodeObject_CAST(op)->utf8);
+    return FT_ATOMIC_LOAD_PTR_ACQUIRE(_PyCompactUnicodeObject_CAST(op)->utf8);
 }
 
 static inline char* PyUnicode_UTF8(PyObject *op)
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ static inline char* PyUnicode_UTF8(PyObject *op)
 
 static inline void PyUnicode_SET_UTF8(PyObject *op, char *utf8)
 {
-    _PyCompactUnicodeObject_CAST(op)->utf8 = utf8;
+    FT_ATOMIC_STORE_PTR_RELEASE(_PyCompactUnicodeObject_CAST(op)->utf8, utf8);
 }
 
 static inline Py_ssize_t PyUnicode_UTF8_LENGTH(PyObject *op)
@@ -700,16 +700,17 @@ _PyUnicode_CheckConsistency(PyObject *op, int check_content)
             CHECK(ascii->state.compact == 0);
             CHECK(data != NULL);
             if (ascii->state.ascii) {
-                CHECK(compact->utf8 == data);
+                CHECK(_PyUnicode_UTF8(op) == data);
                 CHECK(compact->utf8_length == ascii->length);
             }
             else {
-                CHECK(compact->utf8 != data);
+                CHECK(_PyUnicode_UTF8(op) != data);
             }
         }
-
-        if (compact->utf8 == NULL)
+#ifndef Py_GIL_DISABLED
+        if (_PyUnicode_UTF8(op) == NULL)
             CHECK(compact->utf8_length == 0);
+#endif
     }
 
     /* check that the best kind is used: O(n) operation */
@@ -1156,8 +1157,8 @@ resize_compact(PyObject *unicode, Py_ssize_t length)
 
     if (_PyUnicode_HAS_UTF8_MEMORY(unicode)) {
         PyMem_Free(_PyUnicode_UTF8(unicode));
-        PyUnicode_SET_UTF8(unicode, NULL);
         PyUnicode_SET_UTF8_LENGTH(unicode, 0);
+        PyUnicode_SET_UTF8(unicode, NULL);
     }
 #ifdef Py_TRACE_REFS
     _Py_ForgetReference(unicode);
@@ -1210,8 +1211,8 @@ resize_inplace(PyObject *unicode, Py_ssize_t length)
     if (!share_utf8 && _PyUnicode_HAS_UTF8_MEMORY(unicode))
     {
         PyMem_Free(_PyUnicode_UTF8(unicode));
-        PyUnicode_SET_UTF8(unicode, NULL);
         PyUnicode_SET_UTF8_LENGTH(unicode, 0);
+        PyUnicode_SET_UTF8(unicode, NULL);
     }
 
     data = (PyObject *)PyObject_Realloc(data, new_size);
@@ -1221,8 +1222,8 @@ resize_inplace(PyObject *unicode, Py_ssize_t length)
     }
     _PyUnicode_DATA_ANY(unicode) = data;
     if (share_utf8) {
-        PyUnicode_SET_UTF8(unicode, data);
         PyUnicode_SET_UTF8_LENGTH(unicode, length);
+        PyUnicode_SET_UTF8(unicode, data);
     }
     _PyUnicode_LENGTH(unicode) = length;
     PyUnicode_WRITE(PyUnicode_KIND(unicode), data, length, 0);
@@ -4216,6 +4217,21 @@ PyUnicode_FSDecoder(PyObject* arg, void* addr)
 
 static int unicode_fill_utf8(PyObject *unicode);
 
+
+static int
+unicode_ensure_utf8(PyObject *unicode)
+{
+    int err = 0;
+    if (PyUnicode_UTF8(unicode) == NULL) {
+        Py_BEGIN_CRITICAL_SECTION(unicode);
+        if (PyUnicode_UTF8(unicode) == NULL) {
+            err = unicode_fill_utf8(unicode);
+        }
+        Py_END_CRITICAL_SECTION();
+    }
+    return err;
+}
+
 const char *
 PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize(PyObject *unicode, Py_ssize_t *psize)
 {
@@ -4227,13 +4243,11 @@ PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize(PyObject *unicode, Py_ssize_t *psize)
         return NULL;
     }
 
-    if (PyUnicode_UTF8(unicode) == NULL) {
-        if (unicode_fill_utf8(unicode) == -1) {
-            if (psize) {
-                *psize = -1;
-            }
-            return NULL;
+    if (unicode_ensure_utf8(unicode) == -1) {
+        if (psize) {
+            *psize = -1;
         }
+        return NULL;
     }
 
     if (psize) {
@@ -5854,6 +5868,7 @@ unicode_encode_utf8(PyObject *unicode, _Py_error_handler error_handler,
 static int
 unicode_fill_utf8(PyObject *unicode)
 {
+    _Py_CRITICAL_SECTION_ASSERT_OBJECT_LOCKED(unicode);
     /* the string cannot be ASCII, or PyUnicode_UTF8() would be set */
     assert(!PyUnicode_IS_ASCII(unicode));
 
@@ -5895,10 +5910,10 @@ unicode_fill_utf8(PyObject *unicode)
         PyErr_NoMemory();
         return -1;
     }
-    PyUnicode_SET_UTF8(unicode, cache);
-    PyUnicode_SET_UTF8_LENGTH(unicode, len);
     memcpy(cache, start, len);
     cache[len] = '\0';
+    PyUnicode_SET_UTF8_LENGTH(unicode, len);
+    PyUnicode_SET_UTF8(unicode, cache);
     _PyBytesWriter_Dealloc(&writer);
     return 0;
 }