diff --git a/Lib/email/header.py b/Lib/email/header.py
index d3118b03ebd..8c325145aa8 100644
--- a/Lib/email/header.py
+++ b/Lib/email/header.py
@@ -314,7 +314,7 @@ def encode(self, splitchars=';, \t', maxlinelen=None, linesep='\n'):
                                     self._continuation_ws, splitchars)
         for string, charset in self._chunks:
             lines = string.splitlines()
-            formatter.feed(lines[0], charset)
+            formatter.feed(lines[0] if lines else '', charset)
             for line in lines[1:]:
                 formatter.newline()
                 if charset.header_encoding is not None:
diff --git a/Lib/email/test/test_email.py b/Lib/email/test/test_email.py
index 5adecae9fce..721a765f962 100644
--- a/Lib/email/test/test_email.py
+++ b/Lib/email/test/test_email.py
@@ -3705,6 +3705,13 @@ def test_shift_jis_charset(self):
         h = Header('文', charset='shift_jis')
         self.assertEqual(h.encode(), '=?iso-2022-jp?b?GyRCSjgbKEI=?=')
 
+    def test_flatten_header_with_no_value(self):
+        # Issue 11401 (regression from email 4.x)  Note that the space after
+        # the header doesn't reflect the input, but this is also the way
+        # email 4.x behaved.  At some point it would be nice to fix that.
+        msg = email.message_from_string("EmptyHeader:")
+        self.assertEqual(str(msg), "EmptyHeader: \n\n")
+
 
 
 # Test RFC 2231 header parameters (en/de)coding
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 1b838a85263..4b2aa5923f5 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -72,6 +72,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #11401: fix handling of headers with no value; this fixes a regression
+  relative to Python2 and the result is now the same as it was in Python2.
+
 - Issue #9298: base64 bodies weren't being folded to line lengths less than 78,
   which was a regression relative to Python2.  Unlike Python2, the last line
   of the folded body now ends with a carriage return.