diff --git a/include/pybind11/detail/internals.h b/include/pybind11/detail/internals.h
index 6fd61098c..ef1849fbe 100644
--- a/include/pybind11/detail/internals.h
+++ b/include/pybind11/detail/internals.h
@@ -468,9 +468,6 @@ PYBIND11_NOINLINE internals &get_internals() {
         internals_ptr = new internals();
 #if defined(WITH_THREAD)
 
-#    if PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x03090000
-        PyEval_InitThreads();
-#    endif
         PyThreadState *tstate = PyThreadState_Get();
         if (!PYBIND11_TLS_KEY_CREATE(internals_ptr->tstate)) {
             pybind11_fail("get_internals: could not successfully initialize the tstate TSS key!");
diff --git a/include/pybind11/embed.h b/include/pybind11/embed.h
index 0ac609e0f..5b77594b3 100644
--- a/include/pybind11/embed.h
+++ b/include/pybind11/embed.h
@@ -118,6 +118,9 @@ inline void initialize_interpreter(bool init_signal_handlers = true,
 #if PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x030B0000
 
     Py_InitializeEx(init_signal_handlers ? 1 : 0);
+#    if defined(WITH_THREAD) && PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x03070000
+    PyEval_InitThreads();
+#    endif
 
     // Before it was special-cased in python 3.8, passing an empty or null argv
     // caused a segfault, so we have to reimplement the special case ourselves.