diff --git a/ssl/statem/statem_srvr.c b/ssl/statem/statem_srvr.c
index 853af8c0aa9f9..8fd0c13091f93 100644
--- a/ssl/statem/statem_srvr.c
+++ b/ssl/statem/statem_srvr.c
@@ -1618,17 +1618,6 @@ MSG_PROCESS_RETURN tls_process_client_hello(SSL_CONNECTION *s, PACKET *pkt)
                 SSLfatal(s, SSL_AD_INTERNAL_ERROR, ERR_R_INTERNAL_ERROR);
                 goto err;
             }
-            /*
-             * If we require cookies and this ClientHello doesn't contain one,
-             * just return since we do not want to allocate any memory yet.
-             * So check cookie length...
-             */
-            if (SSL_get_options(SSL_CONNECTION_GET_SSL(s)) & SSL_OP_COOKIE_EXCHANGE) {
-                if (clienthello->dtls_cookie_len == 0) {
-                    OPENSSL_free(clienthello);
-                    return MSG_PROCESS_FINISHED_READING;
-                }
-            }
         }
 
         if (!PACKET_get_length_prefixed_2(pkt, &clienthello->ciphersuites)) {
@@ -1762,10 +1751,8 @@ static int tls_early_post_process_client_hello(SSL_CONNECTION *s)
         SSLfatal(s, SSL_AD_UNEXPECTED_MESSAGE, SSL_R_NOT_ON_RECORD_BOUNDARY);
         goto err;
     }
-
     if (SSL_CONNECTION_IS_DTLS(s)) {
-        /* Empty cookie was already handled above by returning early. */
-        if (SSL_get_options(ssl) & SSL_OP_COOKIE_EXCHANGE) {
+        if ((SSL_get_options(ssl) & SSL_OP_COOKIE_EXCHANGE) && clienthello->dtls_cookie_len != 0) {
             if (sctx->app_verify_cookie_cb != NULL) {
                 if (sctx->app_verify_cookie_cb(ssl, clienthello->dtls_cookie,
                         clienthello->dtls_cookie_len) == 0) {