diff --git a/textview.go b/textview.go
index 34197c3..429338a 100644
--- a/textview.go
+++ b/textview.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"regexp"
 	"sync"
+	"unicode"
 	"unicode/utf8"
 
 	"github.com/gdamore/tcell"
@@ -815,7 +816,7 @@ func (t *TextView) Draw(screen tcell.Screen) {
 
 			// Draw the character.
 			var comb []rune
-			if len(runeSequence) > 1 {
+			if len(runeSequence) > 1 && !unicode.IsControl(runeSequence[1]) {
 				// Allocate space for the combining characters only when necessary.
 				comb = make([]rune, len(runeSequence)-1)
 				copy(comb, runeSequence[1:])
diff --git a/util.go b/util.go
index 0f8c075..ac12e57 100644
--- a/util.go
+++ b/util.go
@@ -419,7 +419,7 @@ func printWithStyle(screen tcell.Screen, text string, x, y, maxWidth, align int,
 		_, background, _ := finalStyle.Decompose()
 		finalStyle = overlayStyle(background, style, foregroundColor, backgroundColor, attributes)
 		var comb []rune
-		if len(runeSequence) > 1 {
+		if len(runeSequence) > 1 && !unicode.IsControl(runeSequence[1]) {
 			// Allocate space for the combining characters only when necessary.
 			comb = make([]rune, len(runeSequence)-1)
 			copy(comb, runeSequence[1:])
@@ -475,7 +475,6 @@ func printWithStyle(screen tcell.Screen, text string, x, y, maxWidth, align int,
 		}
 		runeSequence = append(runeSequence, ch)
 		runeSeqWidth += chWidth
-
 	}
 	if drawnWidth+runeSeqWidth <= maxWidth {
 		flush()