diff --git a/django/forms/widgets.py b/django/forms/widgets.py
index c761ea857d..4782b99117 100644
--- a/django/forms/widgets.py
+++ b/django/forms/widgets.py
@@ -533,6 +533,9 @@ class CheckboxInput(Widget):
     def _has_changed(self, initial, data):
         # Sometimes data or initial could be None or '' which should be the
         # same thing as False.
+        if initial == 'False':
+            # show_hidden_initial may have transformed False to 'False'
+            initial = False
         return bool(initial) != bool(data)
 
 class Select(Widget):
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests/widgets.py b/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests/widgets.py
index 31c0e65c7c..f9dc4a7ec8 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests/widgets.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests/widgets.py
@@ -240,6 +240,8 @@ class FormsWidgetTestCase(TestCase):
         self.assertTrue(w._has_changed(False, 'on'))
         self.assertFalse(w._has_changed(True, 'on'))
         self.assertTrue(w._has_changed(True, ''))
+        # Initial value may have mutated to a string due to show_hidden_initial (#19537)
+        self.assertTrue(w._has_changed('False', 'on'))
 
     def test_select(self):
         w = Select()