diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index fa6d9b6432..fc933a79bc 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+3419.	[bug]		Memory leak on validation cancel. [RT #31869]
+
 3417.	[func]		Optional new XML schema (version 3.0) for the 
 			statistics channel adds query type statistics at the 
 			zone level, and flattens the XML tree and uses 
diff --git a/lib/dns/validator.c b/lib/dns/validator.c
index f5b84dde1e..f65f8fff1e 100644
--- a/lib/dns/validator.c
+++ b/lib/dns/validator.c
@@ -4278,9 +4278,11 @@ dns_validator_cancel(dns_validator_t *validator) {
 	}
 	UNLOCK(&validator->lock);
 
-	/* Need to cancel fetch outside validator lock */
-	if (fetch != NULL)
+	/* Need to cancel and destroy the fetch outside validator lock */
+	if (fetch != NULL) {
 		dns_resolver_cancelfetch(fetch);
+		dns_resolver_destroyfetch(&fetch);
+	}
 }
 
 static void