diff --git a/src/unique/handle.go b/src/unique/handle.go
index 96d8fedb0c..abc620f60f 100644
--- a/src/unique/handle.go
+++ b/src/unique/handle.go
@@ -50,13 +50,13 @@ func Make[T comparable](value T) Handle[T] {
 		toInsert     *T // Keep this around to keep it alive.
 		toInsertWeak weak.Pointer[T]
 	)
-	newValue := func() weak.Pointer[T] {
+	newValue := func() (T, weak.Pointer[T]) {
 		if toInsert == nil {
 			toInsert = new(T)
 			*toInsert = clone(value, &m.cloneSeq)
 			toInsertWeak = weak.Make(toInsert)
 		}
-		return toInsertWeak
+		return *toInsert, toInsertWeak
 	}
 	var ptr *T
 	for {
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ func Make[T comparable](value T) Handle[T] {
 		wp, ok := m.Load(value)
 		if !ok {
 			// Try to insert a new value into the map.
-			wp, _ = m.LoadOrStore(value, newValue())
+			k, v := newValue()
+			wp, _ = m.LoadOrStore(k, v)
 		}
 		// Now that we're sure there's a value in the map, let's
 		// try to get the pointer we need out of it.
diff --git a/src/unique/handle_test.go b/src/unique/handle_test.go
index ffb2be42b1..7d12edd467 100644
--- a/src/unique/handle_test.go
+++ b/src/unique/handle_test.go
@@ -9,7 +9,10 @@ import (
 	"internal/abi"
 	"reflect"
 	"runtime"
+	"strings"
 	"testing"
+	"time"
+	"unsafe"
 )
 
 // Set up special types. Because the internal maps are sharded by type,
@@ -110,3 +113,22 @@ func checkMapsFor[T comparable](t *testing.T, value T) {
 	}
 	t.Errorf("failed to drain internal maps of %v", value)
 }
+
+func TestMakeClonesStrings(t *testing.T) {
+	s := strings.Clone("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz") // N.B. Must be big enough to not be tiny-allocated.
+	ran := make(chan bool)
+	runtime.SetFinalizer(unsafe.StringData(s), func(_ *byte) {
+		ran <- true
+	})
+	h := Make(s)
+
+	// Clean up s (hopefully) and run the finalizer.
+	runtime.GC()
+
+	select {
+	case <-time.After(1 * time.Second):
+		t.Fatal("string was improperly retained")
+	case <-ran:
+	}
+	runtime.KeepAlive(h)
+}