diff --git a/Lib/telnetlib.py b/Lib/telnetlib.py
index 62d63612985..af44494e7e8 100644
--- a/Lib/telnetlib.py
+++ b/Lib/telnetlib.py
@@ -195,6 +195,7 @@ class Telnet:
         No other action is done afterwards by telnetlib.
 
     """
+    sock = None  # for __del__()
 
     def __init__(self, host=None, port=0,
                  timeout=socket._GLOBAL_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT):
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-04-25-12-02-06.gh-issue-118042.2EcdHf.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-04-25-12-02-06.gh-issue-118042.2EcdHf.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7337aae0981
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-04-25-12-02-06.gh-issue-118042.2EcdHf.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix an unraisable exception in :meth:`telnetlib.Telnet.__del__` when the
+``__init__()`` method was not called.