diff --git a/mm/kfence/core.c b/mm/kfence/core.c
index 4b5e5a3d3a63..6aff49f6b79e 100644
--- a/mm/kfence/core.c
+++ b/mm/kfence/core.c
@@ -603,14 +603,6 @@ static unsigned long kfence_init_pool(void)
 		addr += 2 * PAGE_SIZE;
 	}
 
-	/*
-	 * The pool is live and will never be deallocated from this point on.
-	 * Remove the pool object from the kmemleak object tree, as it would
-	 * otherwise overlap with allocations returned by kfence_alloc(), which
-	 * are registered with kmemleak through the slab post-alloc hook.
-	 */
-	kmemleak_free(__kfence_pool);
-
 	return 0;
 }
 
@@ -623,8 +615,16 @@ static bool __init kfence_init_pool_early(void)
 
 	addr = kfence_init_pool();
 
-	if (!addr)
+	if (!addr) {
+		/*
+		 * The pool is live and will never be deallocated from this point on.
+		 * Ignore the pool object from the kmemleak phys object tree, as it would
+		 * otherwise overlap with allocations returned by kfence_alloc(), which
+		 * are registered with kmemleak through the slab post-alloc hook.
+		 */
+		kmemleak_ignore_phys(__pa(__kfence_pool));
 		return true;
+	}
 
 	/*
 	 * Only release unprotected pages, and do not try to go back and change