diff --git a/lisp/gnus/shr.el b/lisp/gnus/shr.el
index ee231e6a82f..401ac1a08c6 100644
--- a/lisp/gnus/shr.el
+++ b/lisp/gnus/shr.el
@@ -402,7 +402,7 @@ redirects somewhere else."
 	(not shr-base))
     url)
    ((and (not (string-match "/\\'" shr-base))
-	 (not (string-match "\\`" url)))
+	 (not (string-match "\\`/" url)))
     (concat shr-base "/" url))
    (t
     (concat shr-base url))))