diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 0719b274c..259f1bc20 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 - Added `input`, `label`, `prefix`, `clear-button`, `suffix`, `help-text` exported parts to `sl-select` to make the input customizable
 - Fixed a bug where mouse events would bubble up when `sl-button` was disabled, causing tooltips to erroneously appear
 - Fixed a bug where pressing space would open and immediately close `sl-dropdown` panels in Firefox
+- Fixed a bug where `sl-tooltip` would throw an error on init
 - Fixed buggy custom keyframes animation example
 - Refactored clear logic in `sl-input`
 
diff --git a/src/components/tooltip/tooltip.tsx b/src/components/tooltip/tooltip.tsx
index a1b44bbce..82f9a5716 100644
--- a/src/components/tooltip/tooltip.tsx
+++ b/src/components/tooltip/tooltip.tsx
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ export class Tooltip {
     const oldTarget = this.target;
     const newTarget = this.getTarget();
 
-    if (newTarget !== oldTarget) {
+    if (oldTarget && newTarget !== oldTarget) {
       oldTarget.removeAttribute('aria-describedby');
       newTarget.setAttribute('aria-describedby', this.componentId);
     }