diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/runtime/runtime.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/runtime/runtime.go
index 2a02957fd4b..38c1f7b03c4 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/runtime/runtime.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/runtime/runtime.go
@@ -17,14 +17,17 @@ limitations under the License.
 package runtime
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
 	"net/http"
 	"runtime"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 
 	"k8s.io/klog/v2"
+	"k8s.io/klog/v2/textlogger"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -154,8 +157,37 @@ var ErrorHandlers = []ErrorHandler{
 	backoffError(1 * time.Millisecond),
 }
 
+// ErrorHandler is called indirectly through [HandleError], [HandleErrorWithContext] or [HandleErrorWithLogger].
+// It is passed the same parameters that a structured logging backend needs to log a problem.
+// It follows the semantic described for [HandleErrorWithContext] and [logr.Logger.Error]:
+// - err is optional and may be nil
+// - msg is string that describes the problem
+// - keysAndValues contains additional information that varies between different occurrences of the problem
+//
+// [ErrorToString] can be used to convert these parameters into a single string, using the klog text output.
 type ErrorHandler func(ctx context.Context, err error, msg string, keysAndValues ...interface{})
 
+// ErrorToString takes the parameters passed to [ErrorHandler] and
+// formats them as a string using the klog text output.
+//
+// If any of the values is a multi-line string, then the resulting
+// string also uses line breaks and indention for the sake of readability.
+// Does not include a trailing newline.
+//
+// Use errors.New if an error instead of a string is needed.
+func ErrorToString(err error, msg string, keysAndValues ...interface{}) string {
+	var buffer bytes.Buffer
+	config := textlogger.NewConfig(
+		textlogger.Output(&buffer),
+		textlogger.WithHeader(false),
+	)
+	logger := textlogger.NewLogger(config)
+	logger.Error(err, msg, keysAndValues...)
+	result := buffer.String()
+	result = strings.TrimSpace(result)
+	return result
+}
+
 // HandlerError is a method to invoke when a non-user facing piece of code cannot
 // return an error and needs to indicate it has been ignored. Invoking this method
 // is preferable to logging the error - the default behavior is to log but the
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/runtime/runtime_test.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/runtime/runtime_test.go
index 09e7bc104a9..5af48a7a806 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/runtime/runtime_test.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/runtime/runtime_test.go
@@ -311,3 +311,39 @@ func TestHandleError(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+func TestErrorToString(t *testing.T) {
+	for name, tt := range map[string]struct {
+		err          error
+		msg          string
+		kvs          []any
+		expectString string
+	}{
+		"simple": {
+			errors.New("some error"),
+			"Unhandled error",
+			nil,
+			`"Unhandled error" err="some error"`,
+		},
+		"nil-error": {
+			nil,
+			"Some problem occurred",
+			nil,
+			`"Some problem occurred"`,
+		},
+		"keys-and-values": {
+			errors.New("some error"),
+			"Some error occurred",
+			[]any{"str", "foobar", "int", 1, "multiLine", "line 1\nline 2"},
+			`"Some error occurred" err="some error" str="foobar" int=1 multiLine=<
+	line 1
+	line 2
+ >`,
+		},
+	} {
+		t.Run(name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			actualString := ErrorToString(tt.err, tt.msg, tt.kvs...)
+			assert.Equal(t, tt.expectString, actualString)
+		})
+	}
+}