diff --git a/news/13443.bugfix.rst b/news/13443.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..68e716392e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/13443.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Handle malformed ``Version`` metadata entries and
+show a sensible error message instead of crashing.
diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/metadata/importlib/_dists.py b/src/pip/_internal/metadata/importlib/_dists.py
index 97363af9a55..89364b8b7ab 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/metadata/importlib/_dists.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/metadata/importlib/_dists.py
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 from pip._internal.utils.wheel import parse_wheel, read_wheel_metadata_file
 
 from ._compat import (
+    BadMetadata,
     BasePath,
     get_dist_canonical_name,
     parse_name_and_version_from_info_directory,
@@ -165,9 +166,14 @@ def canonical_name(self) -> NormalizedName:
 
     @property
     def version(self) -> Version:
-        if version := parse_name_and_version_from_info_directory(self._dist)[1]:
+        try:
+            version = (
+                parse_name_and_version_from_info_directory(self._dist)[1]
+                or self._dist.version
+            )
             return parse_version(version)
-        return parse_version(self._dist.version)
+        except TypeError:
+            raise BadMetadata(self._dist, reason="invalid metadata entry `version`")
 
     @property
     def raw_version(self) -> str: