diff --git a/ui/views/widget/widget_delegate.h b/ui/views/widget/widget_delegate.h
index 07ba390764528..f12ce62c31afe 100644
--- a/ui/views/widget/widget_delegate.h
+++ b/ui/views/widget/widget_delegate.h
@@ -322,7 +322,13 @@ class VIEWS_EXPORT WidgetDelegate {
 
     // The widget's initially focused view, if any. This can only be set before
     // this WidgetDelegate is used to initialize a Widget.
-    std::optional<View*> initially_focused_view;
+    // raw_ptr (not bare View*) so BackupRefPtr quarantines the slot if the
+    // referenced View is destroyed before all GetInitiallyFocusedView()
+    // callers (e.g. F6/RotatePaneFocus) stop reading it. The optional wrapper
+    // only records "explicitly set" vs. "defaulted"; nothing observes the
+    // referenced View's lifetime.
+    std::optional<raw_ptr<View, AcrossTasksDanglingUntriaged>>
+        initially_focused_view;
 
     // This is used by modal dialogs to override and constrain desired bounds
     // calculations.