diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index a32b657ef8..d2e2951823 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2362,9 +2362,10 @@ if(NOT CURL_DISABLE_INSTALL)
   configure_file(
     "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/libcurl.pc.in"
     "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/libcurl.pc" @ONLY)
-  # Strip trailing spaces
+  # Strip trailing spaces, and duplicate spaces after colon
   file(READ "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/libcurl.pc" _libcurl_pc)
   string(REGEX REPLACE " +\n" "\n" _libcurl_pc "${_libcurl_pc}")
+  string(REGEX REPLACE "\nLibs\.private: +" "\nLibs.private: " _libcurl_pc "${_libcurl_pc}")
   file(WRITE "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/libcurl.pc" "${_libcurl_pc}")
   install(FILES "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/libcurl.pc"
     DESTINATION "${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/pkgconfig")
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index bf40500b99..8e991dda54 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -5559,8 +5559,8 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([\
 ])
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([curl-config], [chmod +x curl-config])
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([libcurl.pc], [
-  dnl strip trailing spaces
-  "$SED" 's/ *$//g' libcurl.pc > libcurl.pc.tmp && mv libcurl.pc.tmp libcurl.pc
+  dnl strip trailing spaces, and duplicate spaces after colon
+  "$SED" -e 's/ *$//g' -e 's/^Libs\.private:  */Libs.private: /g' libcurl.pc > libcurl.pc.tmp && mv libcurl.pc.tmp libcurl.pc
 ], [SED="$SED"])
 AC_OUTPUT