diff --git a/doc/whatsnew/v0.12.2.rst b/doc/whatsnew/v0.12.2.rst
index da1d8b816b..8eeb8f1990 100644
--- a/doc/whatsnew/v0.12.2.rst
+++ b/doc/whatsnew/v0.12.2.rst
@@ -9,3 +9,5 @@ v0.12.2 (Unreleased)
 - |Fix| Fixed a regression in v0.12.0 where manually-added labels could have duplicate legend entries (:pr:`3116`).
 
 - |Fix| Fixed a bug in :func:`histplot` with `kde=True` and `log_scale=True` where the curve was not scaled properly (:pr:`3173`).
+
+- |Fix| Fixed a bug in :func:`relplot` where inner axis labels would be shown when axis sharing was disabled (:pr:`3180`).
diff --git a/seaborn/relational.py b/seaborn/relational.py
index 4fa854a630..18e18bb64c 100644
--- a/seaborn/relational.py
+++ b/seaborn/relational.py
@@ -955,7 +955,8 @@ def relplot(
     g.map_dataframe(func, **plot_kws)
 
     # Label the axes, using the original variables
-    g.set(xlabel=variables.get("x"), ylabel=variables.get("y"))
+    # Pass "" when the variable name is None to overwrite internal variables
+    g.set_axis_labels(variables.get("x") or "", variables.get("y") or "")
 
     # Show the legend
     if legend:
diff --git a/tests/test_relational.py b/tests/test_relational.py
index eee12e25b3..b100f4ecac 100644
--- a/tests/test_relational.py
+++ b/tests/test_relational.py
@@ -624,6 +624,23 @@ def test_relplot_legend(self, long_df):
         for line, color in zip(lines, palette):
             assert line.get_color() == color
 
+    def test_relplot_unshared_axis_labels(self, long_df):
+
+        col, row = "a", "b"
+        g = relplot(
+            data=long_df, x="x", y="y", col=col, row=row,
+            facet_kws=dict(sharex=False, sharey=False),
+        )
+
+        for ax in g.axes[-1, :].flat:
+            assert ax.get_xlabel() == "x"
+        for ax in g.axes[:-1, :].flat:
+            assert ax.get_xlabel() == ""
+        for ax in g.axes[:, 0].flat:
+            assert ax.get_ylabel() == "y"
+        for ax in g.axes[:, 1:].flat:
+            assert ax.get_ylabel() == ""
+
     def test_relplot_data(self, long_df):
 
         g = relplot(