diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/DomCrawler/Field/TextareaFormField.php b/src/Symfony/Component/DomCrawler/Field/TextareaFormField.php
index 794e966ac6e8e..987b78b5c7ce5 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/DomCrawler/Field/TextareaFormField.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/DomCrawler/Field/TextareaFormField.php
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ protected function initialize()
 
         $this->value = null;
         foreach ($this->node->childNodes as $node) {
-            $this->value .= $this->document->saveXML($node);
+            $this->value .= $node->wholeText;
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/DomCrawler/Tests/Field/TextareaFormFieldTest.php b/src/Symfony/Component/DomCrawler/Tests/Field/TextareaFormFieldTest.php
index a33c44f230183..5df2e77b8137f 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/DomCrawler/Tests/Field/TextareaFormFieldTest.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/DomCrawler/Tests/Field/TextareaFormFieldTest.php
@@ -29,5 +29,19 @@ public function testInitialize()
         } catch (\LogicException $e) {
             $this->assertTrue(true, '->initialize() throws a \LogicException if the node is not a textarea');
         }
+
+        // Ensure that valid HTML can be used on a textarea.
+        $node = $this->createNode('textarea', 'foo bar <h1>Baz</h1>');
+        $field = new TextareaFormField($node);
+
+        $this->assertEquals('foo bar <h1>Baz</h1>', $field->getValue(), '->initialize() sets the value of the field to the textarea node value');
+
+        // Ensure that we don't do any DOM manipulation/validation by passing in
+        // "invalid" HTML.
+        $node = $this->createNode('textarea', 'foo bar <h1>Baz</h2>');
+        $field = new TextareaFormField($node);
+
+        $this->assertEquals('foo bar <h1>Baz</h2>', $field->getValue(), '->initialize() sets the value of the field to the textarea node value');
     }
+
 }