diff --git a/Doc/library/ctypes.rst b/Doc/library/ctypes.rst
index da1aaa89fef7c7..018d673fa2bc02 100644
--- a/Doc/library/ctypes.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/ctypes.rst
@@ -1704,6 +1704,10 @@ These prefabricated library loaders are available:
       :c:expr:`int`, which is of course not always the truth, so you have to assign
       the correct :attr:`!restype` attribute to use these functions.
 
+      .. note::
+
+         If the Python interpreter is statically linked, this may be ``None``.
+
 .. audit-event:: ctypes.dlopen name ctypes.LibraryLoader
 
    Loading a library through any of these objects raises an
diff --git a/Lib/ctypes/__init__.py b/Lib/ctypes/__init__.py
index 0b84a27f8c6d61..0aebd5877d4a9d 100644
--- a/Lib/ctypes/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/ctypes/__init__.py
@@ -553,7 +553,10 @@ def LoadLibrary(self, name):
     # These are Unix-like platforms which use a dynamically-linked libpython.
     pythonapi = PyDLL(_sysconfig.get_config_var("LDLIBRARY"))
 else:
-    pythonapi = PyDLL(None)
+    try:
+        pythonapi = PyDLL(None)
+    except OSError:
+        pythonapi = None
 
 
 if _os.name == "nt":
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-07-18-04-09-44.gh-issue-81241.gGRbBr.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-07-18-04-09-44.gh-issue-81241.gGRbBr.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..6110b7404a811e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-07-18-04-09-44.gh-issue-81241.gGRbBr.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix :exc:`OSError` when importing :mod:`ctypes` from a statically linked
+interpreter.