diff --git a/src/nvim/window.c b/src/nvim/window.c
index f05cfca385..e1f29a62f3 100644
--- a/src/nvim/window.c
+++ b/src/nvim/window.c
@@ -3263,7 +3263,6 @@ bool win_close_othertab(win_T *win, int free_buf, tabpage_T *tp, bool force)
   }
 
   // Free the memory used for the window.
-  buf_T *buf = win->w_buffer;
   int dir;
   win_free_mem(win, &dir, tp);
 
@@ -3276,7 +3275,8 @@ bool win_close_othertab(win_T *win, int free_buf, tabpage_T *tp, bool force)
     if (has_event(EVENT_TABCLOSED)) {
       char prev_idx[NUMBUFLEN];
       vim_snprintf(prev_idx, NUMBUFLEN, "%i", free_tp_idx);
-      apply_autocmds(EVENT_TABCLOSED, prev_idx, prev_idx, false, buf);
+      apply_autocmds(EVENT_TABCLOSED, prev_idx, prev_idx, false,
+                     bufref.br_buf && bufref_valid(&bufref) ? bufref.br_buf : curbuf);
     }
   }
   return true;
diff --git a/test/functional/autocmd/tabclose_spec.lua b/test/functional/autocmd/tabclose_spec.lua
index 3969f33cf1..b6f05ffcaa 100644
--- a/test/functional/autocmd/tabclose_spec.lua
+++ b/test/functional/autocmd/tabclose_spec.lua
@@ -59,13 +59,14 @@ describe('TabClosed', function()
           setlocal bufhidden=wipe
           tabnew
           au TabClosed * ++once let g:tp_valid = nvim_tabpage_is_valid(s:tp)
+                             \| let g:curbuf = bufnr()
                              \| let g:abuf = expand('<abuf>')
 
           call nvim_buf_delete(g:buf, #{force: 1})
         ]])
         eq(false, eval('g:tp_valid'))
         eq(false, eval('nvim_buf_is_valid(g:buf)'))
-        eq('', eval('g:abuf'))
+        eq(eval('g:curbuf'), tonumber(eval('g:abuf'))) -- Falls back to curbuf.
 
         exec([[
           tabnew