diff --git a/Lib/test/test_zipfile/test_core.py b/Lib/test/test_zipfile/test_core.py
index 708db4d4387df5e..10b3aad25fb9b41 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_zipfile/test_core.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_zipfile/test_core.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 from test.support import (
     findfile, requires_zlib, requires_bz2, requires_lzma,
     requires_zstd, captured_stdout, captured_stderr, requires_subprocess,
-    cpython_only, gc_collect
+    cpython_only, gc_collect, catch_unraisable_exception
 )
 from test.support.os_helper import (
     TESTFN, unlink, rmtree, temp_dir, temp_cwd, fd_count, FakePath,
@@ -4095,6 +4095,29 @@ def test_garbage_collection(self):
             zf.close()
             del zf
 
+    def test_garbage_collection_closes_when_warning_fails(self):
+        buf = io.BytesIO()
+        zf = zipfile.ZipFile(buf, "w")
+        zf.writestr("f.txt", b"data")
+        with warnings.catch_warnings(), catch_unraisable_exception() as cm:
+            warnings.simplefilter("error", ResourceWarning)
+            del zf
+            gc_collect()
+            self.assertIsInstance(cm.unraisable.exc_value, ResourceWarning)
+        with zipfile.ZipFile(buf) as zf:
+            self.assertEqual(zf.namelist(), ["f.txt"])
+
+    @requires_subprocess()
+    def test_unclosed_at_shutdown(self):
+        self.addCleanup(unlink, TESTFN)
+        script_helper.assert_python_ok("-c", f"""if 1:
+            import zipfile
+            zf = zipfile.ZipFile({TESTFN!r}, "w")
+            zf.writestr("f.txt", b"data")
+        """)
+        with zipfile.ZipFile(TESTFN) as zf:
+            self.assertEqual(zf.namelist(), ["f.txt"])
+
     def test_unsupported_version(self):
         # File has an extract_version of 120
         data = (b'PK\x03\x04x\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00!p\xa1@\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
diff --git a/Lib/zipfile/__init__.py b/Lib/zipfile/__init__.py
index d817bdd8769e7d7..70346cf2bffc8cc 100644
--- a/Lib/zipfile/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/zipfile/__init__.py
@@ -2650,10 +2650,14 @@ def __del__(self):
         """Call the "close()" method in case the user forgot."""
         # gh-81954: Warn if writable ZipFile is implicitly closed.
         # GC cleanup order is non-deterministic and can result in data loss.
-        if self.fp is not None and self.mode in ('w', 'x', 'a'):
-            warnings.warn(f"unclosed ZipFile {self!r}",
-                          ResourceWarning, source=self, stacklevel=2)
-        self.close()
+        try:
+            # Wrap within a try to ensure the file is closed even if the
+            # warnings module is unable to load during finalization.
+            if self.fp is not None and self.mode in ('w', 'x', 'a'):
+                warnings.warn(f"unclosed ZipFile {self!r}",
+                              ResourceWarning, source=self, stacklevel=2)
+        finally:
+            self.close()
 
     def close(self):
         """Close the file, and for mode 'w', 'x' and 'a' write the ending
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-10-14-14-47-05.gh-issue-81954.KvM0gY.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-10-14-14-47-05.gh-issue-81954.KvM0gY.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..fddb9eabe96c2a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-10-14-14-47-05.gh-issue-81954.KvM0gY.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Fix data loss when a writable :class:`zipfile.ZipFile` that was never closed
+is finalized during interpreter shutdown: :meth:`~zipfile.ZipFile.close` is
+now called even if emitting the :exc:`ResourceWarning` fails.