diff --git a/bindings/pyroot/cppyy/CPyCppyy/src/API.cxx b/bindings/pyroot/cppyy/CPyCppyy/src/API.cxx
index 2a666c4645942..f1e4a336bd825 100644
--- a/bindings/pyroot/cppyy/CPyCppyy/src/API.cxx
+++ b/bindings/pyroot/cppyy/CPyCppyy/src/API.cxx
@@ -88,7 +88,10 @@ static bool Initialize()
     // retrieve the main dictionary
         gMainDict = PyModule_GetDict(
             PyImport_AddModule(const_cast<char*>("__main__")));
-        Py_INCREF(gMainDict);
+    // The gMainDict is borrowed, i.e. we are not calling Py_INCREF(gMainDict).
+    // Like this, we avoid unexpectedly affecting how long __main__ is kept
+    // alive. The gMainDict is only used in Exec(), ExecScript(), and Eval(),
+    // which should not be called after __main__ is garbage collected anyway.
     }
 
 // declare success ...