diff --git a/packages/react-native/scripts/cocoapods/utils.rb b/packages/react-native/scripts/cocoapods/utils.rb
index fa175cac13144a..510e084f600ec6 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/scripts/cocoapods/utils.rb
+++ b/packages/react-native/scripts/cocoapods/utils.rb
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 # This source code is licensed under the MIT license found in the
 # LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
 
+require 'shellwords'
+
 require_relative "./helpers.rb"
 
 # Utilities class for React Native Cocoapods
@@ -237,8 +239,8 @@ def self.create_xcode_env_if_missing(file_manager: File)
             # When installing pods with a yarn alias, yarn creates a fake yarn and node executables
             # in a temporary folder.
             # Using `node --print "process.argv[0]";` we are able to retrieve the actual path from which node is running.
-            # see https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/43285 for more info
-            node_binary = `node --print "process.argv[0]";`
+            # see https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/43285 for more info. We've tweaked this slightly.
+            node_binary = Shellwords.escape(`node --print "process.argv[0]"`.strip)
             system("echo 'export NODE_BINARY=#{node_binary}' > #{file_path}.local")
         end
     end