diff --git a/src/public/app/widgets/highlights_list.spec.ts b/src/public/app/widgets/highlights_list.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..498d9abb4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/public/app/widgets/highlights_list.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import HighlightsListWidget from "./highlights_list.js";
+
+describe("getHighlightList", () => {
+    let widget = new HighlightsListWidget();
+
+    it("supports old italics", async () => {
+        const highlights = await widget.getHighlightList("This is <i>italic</i> text", [ "italic" ]);
+        expect(highlights.$highlightsList.html()).toBe("<li><i>italic</i></li>");
+    });
+
+    it("supports new italics", async () => {
+        const highlights = await widget.getHighlightList("This is <em>italic</em> text", [ "italic" ]);
+        expect(highlights.$highlightsList.html()).toBe("<li><em>italic</em></li>");
+    });
+})
diff --git a/src/public/app/widgets/highlights_list.ts b/src/public/app/widgets/highlights_list.ts
index a9be2ddfa..a7b94df60 100644
--- a/src/public/app/widgets/highlights_list.ts
+++ b/src/public/app/widgets/highlights_list.ts
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ export default class HighlightsListWidget extends RightPanelWidget {
         // matches a span containing color
         const regex2 = /<span[^>]*style\s*=\s*[^>]*[^-]color:[^>]*?>[\s\S]*?<\/span>/gi;
         // match italics
-        const regex3 = /<i>[\s\S]*?<\/i>/gi;
+        const regex3 = /(<i>[\s\S]*?<\/i>|<em>[\s\S]*?<\/em>)/gi;
         // match bold
         const regex4 = /<strong>[\s\S]*?<\/strong>/gi;
         // match underline