diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 006dac68..92a0a87e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# 5.3.0 - 2025-06-19
+
+- fix: safely handle exception values
+
 # 5.2.0 - 2025-06-19
 
 - feat: construct artificial stack traces if no traceback is available on a captured exception
diff --git a/posthog/exception_utils.py b/posthog/exception_utils.py
index 62e804b6..cac9ee05 100644
--- a/posthog/exception_utils.py
+++ b/posthog/exception_utils.py
@@ -438,12 +438,14 @@ def get_errno(exc_value):
 
 def get_error_message(exc_value):
     # type: (Optional[BaseException]) -> str
-    return (
+    message = (
         getattr(exc_value, "message", "")
         or getattr(exc_value, "detail", "")
-        or safe_str(exc_value)
+        or exc_value
     )
 
+    return safe_str(message)
+
 
 def single_exception_from_error_tuple(
     exc_type,  # type: Optional[type]
diff --git a/posthog/version.py b/posthog/version.py
index 96d5127c..4e98cf35 100644
--- a/posthog/version.py
+++ b/posthog/version.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-VERSION = "5.2.0"
+VERSION = "5.3.0"
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     print(VERSION, end="")  # noqa: T201