diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_pods.go b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_pods.go
index ea829014121..9903dd988e9 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_pods.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_pods.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import (
 	goerrors "errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"net"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/url"
 	"os"
@@ -1988,23 +1989,27 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) generateAPIPodStatus(pod *v1.Pod, podStatus *kubecontainer.Po
 // and use them for the Pod.Status.PodIPs and the Downward API environment variables
 func (kl *Kubelet) sortPodIPs(podIPs []string) []string {
 	ips := make([]string, 0, 2)
-	var validPrimaryIP, validSecondaryIP func(ip string) bool
+	var validPrimaryIP, validSecondaryIP func(ip net.IP) bool
 	if len(kl.nodeIPs) == 0 || utilnet.IsIPv4(kl.nodeIPs[0]) {
-		validPrimaryIP = utilnet.IsIPv4String
-		validSecondaryIP = utilnet.IsIPv6String
+		validPrimaryIP = utilnet.IsIPv4
+		validSecondaryIP = utilnet.IsIPv6
 	} else {
-		validPrimaryIP = utilnet.IsIPv6String
-		validSecondaryIP = utilnet.IsIPv4String
+		validPrimaryIP = utilnet.IsIPv6
+		validSecondaryIP = utilnet.IsIPv4
 	}
-	for _, ip := range podIPs {
+
+	// We parse and re-stringify the IPs in case the values from CRI use an irregular format.
+	for _, ipStr := range podIPs {
+		ip := utilnet.ParseIPSloppy(ipStr)
 		if validPrimaryIP(ip) {
-			ips = append(ips, ip)
+			ips = append(ips, ip.String())
 			break
 		}
 	}
-	for _, ip := range podIPs {
+	for _, ipStr := range podIPs {
+		ip := utilnet.ParseIPSloppy(ipStr)
 		if validSecondaryIP(ip) {
-			ips = append(ips, ip)
+			ips = append(ips, ip.String())
 			break
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_pods_test.go b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_pods_test.go
index 4fdf947485b..69579c669af 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_pods_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_pods_test.go
@@ -4580,6 +4580,12 @@ func TestSortPodIPs(t *testing.T) {
 			podIPs:      []string{"10.0.0.1", "10.0.0.2", "fd01::1234", "10.0.0.3", "fd01::5678"},
 			expectedIPs: []string{"10.0.0.1", "fd01::1234"},
 		},
+		{
+			name:        "Badly-formatted IPs from CRI",
+			nodeIP:      "",
+			podIPs:      []string{"010.000.000.001", "fd01:0:0:0:0:0:0:1234"},
+			expectedIPs: []string{"10.0.0.1", "fd01::1234"},
+		},
 	}
 
 	for _, tc := range testcases {