diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 0bd714f12..b8de09673 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ Interactive improvements
 - A crash when completing a token that contained both a potential glob and a quoted variable expansion was fixed (:issue:`9137`).
 - If ``$fish_color_valid_path`` contains an actual color instead of just modifiers, those will be used for valid paths even if the underlying color isn't "normal" (:issue:`9159`).
 - ``prompt_pwd`` no longer accidentally overwrites a global or universal ``$fish_prompt_pwd_full_dirs`` when called with the ``-d`` or ``--full-length-dirs`` option (:issue:`9123`).
+- A bug which caused fish to freeze or exit after running a command which does not preserve the foreground process group was fixed (:issue:`9181`).
 
 New or improved bindings
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
diff --git a/src/fish_test_helper.cpp b/src/fish_test_helper.cpp
index 009442579..cac2838d8 100644
--- a/src/fish_test_helper.cpp
+++ b/src/fish_test_helper.cpp
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 // programs, allowing fish to test its behavior.
 
 #include <fcntl.h>
+#include <sys/wait.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 
 #include <algorithm>
@@ -11,6 +12,27 @@
 #include <cstring>
 #include <iterator>  // for std::begin/end
 
+static void abandon_tty() {
+    pid_t pid = fork();
+    if (pid < 0) {
+        perror("fork");
+        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+    }
+    // Both parent and child do the same thing.
+    pid_t child = pid ? pid : getpid();
+    if (setpgid(child, child)) {
+        perror("setpgid");
+        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+    }
+    // tcsetpgrp may fail in the parent if the child has already exited.
+    // This is the benign race.
+    (void)tcsetpgrp(STDIN_FILENO, child);
+    // Parent waits for child to exit.
+    if (pid > 0) {
+        waitpid(child, nullptr, 0);
+    }
+}
+
 static void become_foreground_then_print_stderr() {
     if (tcsetpgrp(STDOUT_FILENO, getpgrp()) < 0) {
         perror("tcsetgrp");
@@ -192,6 +214,7 @@ struct fth_command_t {
 };
 
 static fth_command_t s_commands[] = {
+    {"abandon_tty", abandon_tty, "Create a new pgroup and transfer tty ownership to it"},
     {"become_foreground_then_print_stderr", become_foreground_then_print_stderr,
      "Claim the terminal (tcsetpgrp) and then print to stderr"},
     {"nohup_wait", nohup_wait, "Ignore SIGHUP and just wait"},
diff --git a/src/reader.cpp b/src/reader.cpp
index c67234bd3..06d349e26 100644
--- a/src/reader.cpp
+++ b/src/reader.cpp
@@ -4278,6 +4278,11 @@ maybe_t<wcstring> reader_data_t::readline(int nchars_or_0) {
 
     history_search.reset();
 
+    // It may happen that a command we ran when job control was disabled nevertheless stole the tty
+    // from us. In that case when we read from our fd, it will trigger SIGTTIN. So just
+    // unconditionally reclaim the tty. See #9181.
+    (void)tcsetpgrp(conf.in, getpgrp());
+
     // Get the current terminal modes. These will be restored when the function returns.
     struct termios old_modes {};
     if (tcgetattr(conf.in, &old_modes) == -1 && errno == EIO) redirect_tty_output();
diff --git a/tests/pexpects/tty_ownership.py b/tests/pexpects/tty_ownership.py
index 46794556d..39c6c38be 100644
--- a/tests/pexpects/tty_ownership.py
+++ b/tests/pexpects/tty_ownership.py
@@ -15,3 +15,15 @@ expect_prompt()
 
 sendline("echo it worked")
 expect_prompt("it worked")
+
+# Regression test for #9181
+sendline("status job-control interactive")
+expect_prompt()
+sendline("$fish_test_helper abandon_tty")
+expect_prompt()
+sendline("echo cool")
+expect_prompt("cool")
+sendline("true ($fish_test_helper abandon_tty)")
+expect_prompt()
+sendline("echo even cooler")
+expect_prompt("even cooler")