diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index d528d3c..43c55df 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -183,6 +183,9 @@
 Build
 -----
 
+- Issue #9848: Stopping trying to build _weakref in setup.py as it is a
+  built-in module.
+
 - Issue #9806: python-config now has an ``--extension-suffix`` option that
   outputs the suffix for dynamic libraries including the ABI version name
   defined by PEP 3149.
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 85cd605..861f9ef 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -456,9 +456,6 @@
         # on pretty much any POSIXish platform.
         #
 
-        # Some modules that are normally always on:
-        exts.append( Extension('_weakref', ['_weakref.c']) )
-
         # array objects
         exts.append( Extension('array', ['arraymodule.c']) )
         # complex math library functions