diff --git a/src/wp-includes/l10n/class-wp-translation-file-mo.php b/src/wp-includes/l10n/class-wp-translation-file-mo.php
index f50c0ec1cf2d1..1df71abaf7fff 100644
--- a/src/wp-includes/l10n/class-wp-translation-file-mo.php
+++ b/src/wp-includes/l10n/class-wp-translation-file-mo.php
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ protected function parse_file(): bool {
 						continue;
 					}
 
-					list( $name, $value ) = array_map( 'trim', explode( ':', $meta_line, 2 ) );
+					list( $name, $value ) = array_map( 'trim', array_pad( explode( ':', $meta_line, 2 ), 2, '' ) );
 
 					$this->headers[ strtolower( $name ) ] = $value;
 				}