diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index 1aab9cf37768a8..9f0a4d4785eda6 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -688,7 +688,7 @@ _PyUnicode_CheckConsistency(PyObject *op, int check_content)
                                  || kind == PyUnicode_2BYTE_KIND
                                  || kind == PyUnicode_4BYTE_KIND);
             CHECK(ascii->state.ascii == 0);
-            CHECK(compact->utf8 != data);
+            CHECK(_PyUnicode_UTF8(op) != data);
         }
         else {
             PyUnicodeObject *unicode = _PyUnicodeObject_CAST(op);