diff --git a/lib/src/HttpResponseImpl.cc b/lib/src/HttpResponseImpl.cc
index 0af270de..c5ab2d30 100644
--- a/lib/src/HttpResponseImpl.cc
+++ b/lib/src/HttpResponseImpl.cc
@@ -404,7 +404,7 @@ void HttpResponseImpl::clear()
 {
     _statusCode = kUnknown;
     _v = kHttp11;
-    _statusMessage = nullptr;
+    _statusMessage = string_view{};
     _fullHeaderString.reset();
     _headers.clear();
     _cookies.clear();
@@ -435,4 +435,4 @@ void HttpResponseImpl::parseJson() const
 
 HttpResponseImpl::~HttpResponseImpl()
 {
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}