diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/cpython/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/cpython/default.nix
index e4a974a255b8..7a2a79b8cfed 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/cpython/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/cpython/default.nix
@@ -193,7 +193,8 @@ in with passthru; stdenv.mkDerivation {
   prePatch = optionalString stdenv.isDarwin ''
     substituteInPlace configure --replace '`/usr/bin/arch`' '"i386"'
     substituteInPlace configure --replace '-Wl,-stack_size,1000000' ' '
-  '' + optionalString (stdenv.isDarwin && x11Support) ''
+  '' + optionalString (pythonOlder "3.9" && stdenv.isDarwin && x11Support) ''
+    # Broken on >= 3.9; replaced with ./3.9/darwin-tcl-tk.patch
     substituteInPlace setup.py --replace /Library/Frameworks /no-such-path
   '';