diff --git a/django/newforms/widgets.py b/django/newforms/widgets.py
index 8965a8c108..df5c20d97d 100644
--- a/django/newforms/widgets.py
+++ b/django/newforms/widgets.py
@@ -571,6 +571,8 @@ class MultiWidget(Widget):
     def _has_changed(self, initial, data):
         if initial is None:
             initial = [u'' for x in range(0, len(data))]
+        else:
+            initial = self.decompress(initial)
         for widget, initial, data in zip(self.widgets, initial, data):
             if not widget._has_changed(initial, data):
                 return False
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/forms/widgets.py b/tests/regressiontests/forms/widgets.py
index 0e69602103..d701879311 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/forms/widgets.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/forms/widgets.py
@@ -895,6 +895,12 @@ u'<input id="foo_0" type="text" class="big" value="john" name="name_0" /><br /><
 >>> w.render('name', ['john', 'lennon'])
 u'<input id="bar_0" type="text" class="big" value="john" name="name_0" /><br /><input id="bar_1" type="text" class="small" value="lennon" name="name_1" />'
 
+>>> w = MyMultiWidget(widgets=(TextInput(), TextInput()))
+>>> w._has_changed(None, ['john', 'lennon'])
+True
+>>> w._has_changed('john__lennon', ['john', 'lennon'])
+False
+
 # SplitDateTimeWidget #########################################################
 
 >>> w = SplitDateTimeWidget()