diff --git a/packages/core/src/sanitization/inert_body.ts b/packages/core/src/sanitization/inert_body.ts
index c460c5dc65..4086956ac6 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/sanitization/inert_body.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/sanitization/inert_body.ts
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@ import {trustedHTMLFromString} from '../util/security/trusted_types';
  * Fallback: InertDocument strategy
  */
 export function getInertBodyHelper(defaultDoc: Document): InertBodyHelper {
-  return isDOMParserAvailable() ? new DOMParserHelper() : new InertDocumentHelper(defaultDoc);
+  const inertDocumentHelper = new InertDocumentHelper(defaultDoc);
+  return isDOMParserAvailable() ? new DOMParserHelper(inertDocumentHelper) : inertDocumentHelper;
 }
 
 export interface InertBodyHelper {
@@ -31,6 +32,8 @@ export interface InertBodyHelper {
  * This is the default strategy used in browsers that support it.
  */
 class DOMParserHelper implements InertBodyHelper {
+  constructor(private inertDocumentHelper: InertBodyHelper) {}
+
   getInertBodyElement(html: string): HTMLElement|null {
     // We add these extra elements to ensure that the rest of the content is parsed as expected
     // e.g. leading whitespace is maintained and tags like `<meta>` do not get hoisted to the
@@ -41,6 +44,12 @@ class DOMParserHelper implements InertBodyHelper {
       const body = new window.DOMParser()
                        .parseFromString(trustedHTMLFromString(html) as string, 'text/html')
                        .body as HTMLBodyElement;
+      if (body === null) {
+        // In some browsers (e.g. Mozilla/5.0 iPad AppleWebKit Mobile) the `body` property only
+        // becomes available in the following tick of the JS engine. In that case we fall back to
+        // the `inertDocumentHelper` instead.
+        return this.inertDocumentHelper.getInertBodyElement(html);
+      }
       body.removeChild(body.firstChild!);
       return body;
     } catch {
diff --git a/packages/core/test/sanitization/html_sanitizer_spec.ts b/packages/core/test/sanitization/html_sanitizer_spec.ts
index aae4a18421..01d805c9be 100644
--- a/packages/core/test/sanitization/html_sanitizer_spec.ts
+++ b/packages/core/test/sanitization/html_sanitizer_spec.ts
@@ -252,5 +252,14 @@ function sanitizeHtml(defaultDoc: any, unsafeHtmlInput: string): string {
             .toMatch(/<a href="unsafe:(&#12288;)?javascript:alert\(1\)">CLICKME<\/a>/);
       });
     }
+
+    if (isDOMParserAvailable()) {
+      it('should work even if DOMParser returns a null body', () => {
+        // Simulate `DOMParser.parseFromString()` returning a null body.
+        // See https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/39834
+        spyOn(window.DOMParser.prototype, 'parseFromString').and.returnValue({body: null} as any);
+        expect(sanitizeHtml(defaultDoc, 'Hello, World')).toEqual('Hello, World');
+      });
+    }
   });
 }