diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index efcfc969e..2e2c123b5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.
 ### Removed
 - Removes i18n keys for deprecated bibliography service #983
 ### Fixed
+- Fixed bug that caused feature pages using the search results widget to throw an error #1073
 ### Security
 
 ## [1.14.1] - 2018-01-17
diff --git a/app/controllers/catalog_controller.rb b/app/controllers/catalog_controller.rb
index 98d0fc9ab..9c2dea355 100644
--- a/app/controllers/catalog_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/catalog_controller.rb
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ class << self
     # section. In the case of our full text field, we do not render it in the normal results
     # so we need to not display the field at all unless it was returned in the highlighting.
     def full_text_highlight_exists_in_response?(context, config, document)
-      response = context.instance_variable_get(:@response)
+      response = context.instance_variable_get(:@response) || {}
       document_highlight = response.dig('highlighting', document['id'])
       return true if document_highlight.present? && document_highlight[config.key].present?
       false
diff --git a/spec/controllers/catalog_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/catalog_controller_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..78f9e9f5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/controllers/catalog_controller_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# frozen_string_literal: true
+
+require 'rails_helper'
+
+describe CatalogController do
+  describe '#full_text_highlight_exists_in_response?' do
+    context 'when there is no solr response' do
+      it 'does not throw an error (returns false)' do
+        expect(
+          described_class.full_text_highlight_exists_in_response?(
+            instance_double('Context'),
+            instance_double('Config'),
+            SolrDocument.new(id: 'abc123')
+          )
+        ).to be false
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end