diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc b/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc
index cf0796f..b7bd526 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc
@@ -1040,7 +1040,15 @@ String::utf8_value() const
     if (!s) {
         throw invalid_error("String");
     }
-    return s->getUTF8Val();
+    if (util::is_utf16(s->val)) {
+        return QUtil::utf16_to_utf8(s->val);
+    }
+    if (util::is_explicit_utf8(s->val)) {
+        // PDF 2.0 allows UTF-8 strings when explicitly prefixed with the three-byte representation
+        // of U+FEFF.
+        return s->val.substr(3);
+    }
+    return QUtil::pdf_doc_to_utf8(s->val);
 }
 
 std::string
diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDF_String.cc b/libqpdf/QPDF_String.cc
index 1077d40..235cd79 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDF_String.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDF_String.cc
@@ -150,17 +150,3 @@ QPDF_String::unparse(bool force_binary)
 
     return result;
 }
-
-std::string
-QPDF_String::getUTF8Val() const
-{
-    if (util::is_utf16(val)) {
-        return QUtil::utf16_to_utf8(val);
-    }
-    if (util::is_explicit_utf8(val)) {
-        // PDF 2.0 allows UTF-8 strings when explicitly prefixed with the three-byte representation
-        // of U+FEFF.
-        return val.substr(3);
-    }
-    return QUtil::pdf_doc_to_utf8(val);
-}
diff --git a/libqpdf/qpdf/QPDFObject_private.hh b/libqpdf/qpdf/QPDFObject_private.hh
index 28f97c9..ecfcf7a 100644
--- a/libqpdf/qpdf/QPDFObject_private.hh
+++ b/libqpdf/qpdf/QPDFObject_private.hh
@@ -269,7 +269,6 @@ class QPDF_String final
     static std::shared_ptr<QPDFObject> create_utf16(std::string const& utf8_val);
     std::string unparse(bool force_binary = false);
     void writeJSON(int json_version, JSON::Writer& p);
-    std::string getUTF8Val() const;
 
   private:
     QPDF_String(std::string const& val) :