diff --git a/src/changes/changes.xml b/src/changes/changes.xml
index 5f850f0ca..db5782e3f 100644
--- a/src/changes/changes.xml
+++ b/src/changes/changes.xml
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ The <action> type attribute can be add,update,fix,remove.
     <action type="fix" dev="ggregory" due-to="Gary Gregory">Pick up maven-antrun-plugin version from parent POM org.apache:apache.</action>
     <action type="fix" dev="ggregory" due-to="Gary Gregory">Deprecate GenericTypeValidator.GenericTypeValidator().</action>
     <action type="fix" dev="ggregory" due-to="Gary Gregory">Deprecate GenericValidator.GenericValidator().</action>
+    <action type="fix" dev="ggregory" due-to="Gary Gregory">Deprecate ValidatorUtils.ValidatorUtils().</action>
     <!-- ADD -->
     <action type="add" issue="VALIDATOR-497" dev="sjaranowski" due-to="Slawomir Jaranowski">IBANValidator: add method validate with validation status</action>
     <action type="add" dev="sebb">DomainValidatorTest: added Maven profile to simplfy execution.</action>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/validator/util/ValidatorUtils.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/validator/util/ValidatorUtils.java
index dfc15112a..94a43b7c0 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/validator/util/ValidatorUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/validator/util/ValidatorUtils.java
@@ -153,4 +153,14 @@ public static String replace(final String value, final String key, final String
         return value.replace(key, replaceValue);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Constructs a new instance.
+     *
+     * @deprecated Will be private in the next major version.
+     */
+    @Deprecated
+    public ValidatorUtils() {
+        // empty
+    }
+
 }