diff --git a/redis/client.py b/redis/client.py
index ae4fae2ace..16ffbb01fd 100755
--- a/redis/client.py
+++ b/redis/client.py
@@ -1530,6 +1530,8 @@ def handle_message(self, response, ignore_subscribe_messages=False):
         with a message handler, the handler is invoked instead of a parsed
         message being returned.
         """
+        if response is None:
+            return None
         message_type = str_if_bytes(response[0])
         if message_type == "pmessage":
             message = {