diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index c38e1aa5ebd..70ba5341d8a 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -497,8 +497,6 @@ named.
 *** New user option 'xwidget-webkit-cookie-file'.
 Using this option you can control whether the xwidget-webkit buffers
 save cookies set by web pages, and if so, in which file to save them.
-the default is the file 'xwidget-webkit-cookies.txt' under
-'~/.emacs.d' directory.
 
 +++
 *** New minor mode 'xwidget-webkit-edit-mode'.
diff --git a/lisp/xwidget.el b/lisp/xwidget.el
index a1f992e6598..e9a0507bbf3 100644
--- a/lisp/xwidget.el
+++ b/lisp/xwidget.el
@@ -108,9 +108,7 @@ It can use the following special constructs:
   :type 'string
   :version "29.1")
 
-(defcustom xwidget-webkit-cookie-file
-  (file-name-concat user-emacs-directory
-                    "xwidget-webkit-cookies.txt")
+(defcustom xwidget-webkit-cookie-file nil
   "The name of the file where `xwidget-webkit-browse-url' will store cookies.
 They will be stored as plain text in Mozilla \"cookies.txt\"
 format.  If nil, do not store cookies."