diff --git a/src/react-contenteditable.js b/src/react-contenteditable.js
index 3db2966..a42ea6a 100644
--- a/src/react-contenteditable.js
+++ b/src/react-contenteditable.js
@@ -4,9 +4,10 @@ import deepEqual from 'fast-deep-equal';
 let stripNbsp = str => str && str.replace(/ |\u202F|\u00A0/g, ' ');
 
 export default class ContentEditable extends React.Component {
-  constructor() {
+  constructor(props) {
     super();
     this.emitChange = this.emitChange.bind(this);
+    this.lastHtml = props.html;
   }
 
   render() {
@@ -54,8 +55,7 @@ export default class ContentEditable extends React.Component {
     if (this.htmlEl && this.props.html !== this.htmlEl.innerHTML) {
       // Perhaps React (whose VDOM gets outdated because we often prevent
       // rerendering) did not update the DOM. So we update it manually now.
-      this.htmlEl.innerHTML = this.props.html;
-      this.lastHtml = this.props.html;
+      this.htmlEl.innerHTML = this.lastHtml = this.props.html;
     }
   }