diff --git a/src/wp-admin/js/widgets/text-widgets.js b/src/wp-admin/js/widgets/text-widgets.js
index 3902aeddc0..7cf07513b7 100644
--- a/src/wp-admin/js/widgets/text-widgets.js
+++ b/src/wp-admin/js/widgets/text-widgets.js
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ wp.textWidgets = ( function( $ ) {
 			// Sync input fields to hidden sync fields which actually get sent to the server.
 			_.each( control.fields, function( fieldInput, fieldName ) {
 				fieldInput.on( 'input change', function updateSyncField() {
-					var syncInput = control.syncContainer.find( 'input[type=hidden].' + fieldName );
+					var syncInput = control.syncContainer.find( '.sync-input.' + fieldName );
 					if ( syncInput.val() !== fieldInput.val() ) {
 						syncInput.val( fieldInput.val() );
 						syncInput.trigger( 'change' );
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ wp.textWidgets = ( function( $ ) {
 				});
 
 				// Note that syncInput cannot be re-used because it will be destroyed with each widget-updated event.
-				fieldInput.val( control.syncContainer.find( 'input[type=hidden].' + fieldName ).val() );
+				fieldInput.val( control.syncContainer.find( '.sync-input.' + fieldName ).val() );
 			});
 		},
 
@@ -145,11 +145,11 @@ wp.textWidgets = ( function( $ ) {
 			var control = this, syncInput;
 
 			if ( ! control.fields.title.is( document.activeElement ) ) {
-				syncInput = control.syncContainer.find( 'input[type=hidden].title' );
+				syncInput = control.syncContainer.find( '.sync-input.title' );
 				control.fields.title.val( syncInput.val() );
 			}
 
-			syncInput = control.syncContainer.find( 'input[type=hidden].text' );
+			syncInput = control.syncContainer.find( '.sync-input.text' );
 			if ( control.fields.text.is( ':visible' ) ) {
 				if ( ! control.fields.text.is( document.activeElement ) ) {
 					control.fields.text.val( syncInput.val() );
diff --git a/src/wp-includes/widgets/class-wp-widget-text.php b/src/wp-includes/widgets/class-wp-widget-text.php
index ef9e349aa4..a79e0daa6c 100644
--- a/src/wp-includes/widgets/class-wp-widget-text.php
+++ b/src/wp-includes/widgets/class-wp-widget-text.php
@@ -332,6 +332,7 @@ class WP_Widget_Text extends WP_Widget {
 	 * @since 4.8.0 Form only contains hidden inputs which are synced with JS template.
 	 * @since 4.8.1 Restored original form to be displayed when in legacy mode.
 	 * @see WP_Widget_Visual_Text::render_control_template_scripts()
+	 * @see _WP_Editors::editor()
 	 *
 	 * @param array $instance Current settings.
 	 * @return void
@@ -346,10 +347,31 @@ class WP_Widget_Text extends WP_Widget {
 		);
 		?>
 		<?php if ( ! $this->is_legacy_instance( $instance ) ) : ?>
-			<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'title' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'title' ); ?>" class="title" type="hidden" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $instance['title'] ); ?>">
-			<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'text' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'text' ); ?>" class="text" type="hidden" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $instance['text'] ); ?>">
-			<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'filter' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'filter' ); ?>" class="filter" type="hidden" value="on">
-			<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'visual' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'visual' ); ?>" class="visual" type="hidden" value="on">
+			<?php
+
+			if ( user_can_richedit() ) {
+				add_filter( 'the_editor_content', 'format_for_editor', 10, 2 );
+				$default_editor = 'tinymce';
+			} else {
+				$default_editor = 'html';
+			}
+
+			/** This filter is documented in wp-includes/class-wp-editor.php */
+			$text = apply_filters( 'the_editor_content', $instance['text'], $default_editor );
+
+			// Reset filter addition.
+			if ( user_can_richedit() ) {
+				remove_filter( 'the_editor_content', 'format_for_editor' );
+			}
+
+			// Prevent premature closing of textarea in case format_for_editor() didn't apply or the_editor_content filter did a wrong thing.
+			$escaped_text = preg_replace( '#</textarea#i', '&lt;/textarea', $text );
+
+			?>
+			<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'title' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'title' ); ?>" class="title sync-input" type="hidden" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $instance['title'] ); ?>">
+			<textarea id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'text' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'text' ); ?>" class="text sync-input" hidden><?php echo $escaped_text; ?></textarea>
+			<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'filter' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'filter' ); ?>" class="filter sync-input" type="hidden" value="on">
+			<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'visual' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'visual' ); ?>" class="visual sync-input" type="hidden" value="on">
 		<?php else : ?>
 			<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'visual' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'visual' ); ?>" class="visual" type="hidden" value="">
 			<p>
diff --git a/tests/phpunit/tests/widgets/text-widget.php b/tests/phpunit/tests/widgets/text-widget.php
index 9bc6edcad4..f7e810fd04 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/tests/widgets/text-widget.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/tests/widgets/text-widget.php
@@ -447,7 +447,9 @@ class Test_WP_Widget_Text extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 	 * @covers WP_Widget_Text::form
 	 */
 	function test_form() {
+		add_filter( 'user_can_richedit', '__return_true' );
 		$widget = new WP_Widget_Text();
+		$widget->_set( 2 );
 		$instance = array(
 			'title' => 'Title',
 			'text' => 'Text',
@@ -459,7 +461,7 @@ class Test_WP_Widget_Text extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 		$widget->form( $instance );
 		$form = ob_get_clean();
 		$this->assertContains( 'class="visual" type="hidden" value=""', $form );
-		$this->assertNotContains( 'class="visual" type="hidden" value="on"', $form );
+		$this->assertNotContains( 'class="visual sync-input" type="hidden" value="on"', $form );
 
 		$instance = array(
 			'title' => 'Title',
@@ -470,8 +472,8 @@ class Test_WP_Widget_Text extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 		ob_start();
 		$widget->form( $instance );
 		$form = ob_get_clean();
-		$this->assertContains( 'class="visual" type="hidden" value="on"', $form );
-		$this->assertNotContains( 'class="visual" type="hidden" value=""', $form );
+		$this->assertContains( 'class="visual sync-input" type="hidden" value="on"', $form );
+		$this->assertNotContains( 'class="visual sync-input" type="hidden" value=""', $form );
 
 		$instance = array(
 			'title' => 'Title',
@@ -482,12 +484,12 @@ class Test_WP_Widget_Text extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 		ob_start();
 		$widget->form( $instance );
 		$form = ob_get_clean();
-		$this->assertContains( 'class="visual" type="hidden" value="on"', $form );
-		$this->assertNotContains( 'class="visual" type="hidden" value=""', $form );
+		$this->assertContains( 'class="visual sync-input" type="hidden" value="on"', $form );
+		$this->assertNotContains( 'class="visual sync-input" type="hidden" value=""', $form );
 
 		$instance = array(
 			'title' => 'Title',
-			'text' => 'Text',
+			'text' => 'This is some HTML Code: <code>&lt;strong&gt;BOLD!&lt;/strong&gt;</code>',
 			'filter' => true,
 			'visual' => true,
 		);
@@ -495,8 +497,24 @@ class Test_WP_Widget_Text extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 		ob_start();
 		$widget->form( $instance );
 		$form = ob_get_clean();
-		$this->assertContains( 'class="visual" type="hidden" value="on"', $form );
-		$this->assertNotContains( 'class="visual" type="hidden" value=""', $form );
+		$this->assertContains( 'class="visual sync-input" type="hidden" value="on"', $form );
+		$this->assertContains( '&lt;code&gt;&amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;BOLD!', $form );
+		$this->assertNotContains( 'class="visual sync-input" type="hidden" value=""', $form );
+
+		remove_filter( 'user_can_richedit', '__return_true' );
+		add_filter( 'user_can_richedit', '__return_false' );
+		$instance = array(
+			'title' => 'Title',
+			'text' => 'Evil:</textarea><script>alert("XSS")</script>',
+			'filter' => true,
+			'visual' => true,
+		);
+		$this->assertFalse( $widget->is_legacy_instance( $instance ) );
+		ob_start();
+		$widget->form( $instance );
+		$form = ob_get_clean();
+		$this->assertNotContains( 'Evil:</textarea>', $form );
+		$this->assertContains( 'Evil:&lt;/textarea>', $form );
 	}
 
 	/**