diff --git a/ios/Capacitor/Capacitor/CAPBridgeViewController.swift b/ios/Capacitor/Capacitor/CAPBridgeViewController.swift
index a7285213d..8d8cf088d 100644
--- a/ios/Capacitor/Capacitor/CAPBridgeViewController.swift
+++ b/ios/Capacitor/Capacitor/CAPBridgeViewController.swift
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@ import Cordova
 
     public fileprivate(set) var webView: WKWebView?
 
+    // WKHTTPCookieStore does not retain observers, so we hold a strong reference here
+    // (else it deallocs immediately and `cookiesDidChange` never fires) plus the store
+    // it was added to, so the observer can be removed in `deinit` as the docs require.
+    private var cookieObserver: CapacitorWKCookieObserver?
+    private weak var cookieObserverStore: WKHTTPCookieStore?
+
     public var isStatusBarVisible = true
     public var statusBarStyle: UIStatusBarStyle = .default
     public var statusBarAnimation: UIStatusBarAnimation = .fade
@@ -27,6 +33,12 @@ import Cordova
         return false
     }()
 
+    deinit {
+        if let cookieObserver = cookieObserver {
+            cookieObserverStore?.remove(cookieObserver)
+        }
+    }
+
     override public final func loadView() {
         // load the configuration and set the logging flag
         let configDescriptor = instanceDescriptor()
@@ -118,7 +130,11 @@ import Cordova
      */
     open func webViewConfiguration(for instanceConfiguration: InstanceConfiguration) -> WKWebViewConfiguration {
         let webViewConfiguration = WKWebViewConfiguration()
-        webViewConfiguration.websiteDataStore.httpCookieStore.add(CapacitorWKCookieObserver())
+        let cookieObserver = CapacitorWKCookieObserver()
+        let cookieStore = webViewConfiguration.websiteDataStore.httpCookieStore
+        cookieStore.add(cookieObserver)
+        self.cookieObserver = cookieObserver
+        self.cookieObserverStore = cookieStore
         webViewConfiguration.allowsInlineMediaPlayback = true
         webViewConfiguration.suppressesIncrementalRendering = false
         webViewConfiguration.allowsAirPlayForMediaPlayback = true