diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt
index bbb4887f55e179..89e2d3006696c5 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt
@@ -1089,7 +1089,6 @@ I/O
 - Bug in :meth:`DataFrame.to_html` in which there was no validation of the ``justify`` parameter (:issue:`17527`)
 - Bug in :func:`HDFStore.select` when reading a contiguous mixed-data table featuring VLArray (:issue:`17021`)
 - Bug in :func:`to_json` where several conditions (including objects with unprintable symbols, objects with deep recursion, overlong labels) caused segfaults instead of raising the appropriate exception (:issue:`14256`)
-- Bug in :meth:`DataFrame.to_latex` with ``longtable=True`` where a latex multicolumn always spanned over three columns (:issue:`17959`)
 
 Plotting
 ^^^^^^^^
diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.1.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.1.txt
index fcc9144bef9e30..a34e7db3fffce3 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.1.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.1.txt
@@ -120,6 +120,7 @@ I/O
 - Bug in :meth:`DataFrame.to_msgpack` when serializing data of the numpy.bool_ datatype (:issue:`18390`)
 - Bug in :func:`read_json` not decoding when reading line deliminted JSON from S3 (:issue:`17200`)
 - Bug in :func:`pandas.io.json.json_normalize` to avoid modification of ``meta`` (:issue:`18610`)
+- Bug in :meth:`DataFrame.to_latex` with ``longtable=True`` where a latex multicolumn always spanned over three columns (:issue:`17959`)
 
 Plotting
 ^^^^^^^^
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_to_latex.py b/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_to_latex.py
index 863fcae6ca31a3..6103627c5c64eb 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_to_latex.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_to_latex.py
@@ -91,6 +91,29 @@ def test_to_latex_format(self, frame):
 
         assert withindex_result == withindex_expected
 
+    def test_to_latex_empty(self):
+        df = DataFrame()
+        result = df.to_latex()
+        expected = r"""\begin{tabular}{l}
+\toprule
+Empty DataFrame
+Columns: Index([], dtype='object')
+Index: Index([], dtype='object') \\
+\bottomrule
+\end{tabular}
+"""
+        assert result == expected
+
+        result = df.to_latex(longtable=True)
+        expected = r"""\begin{longtable}{l}
+\toprule
+Empty DataFrame
+Columns: Index([], dtype='object')
+Index: Index([], dtype='object') \\
+\end{longtable}
+"""
+        assert result == expected
+
     def test_to_latex_with_formatters(self):
         df = DataFrame({'int': [1, 2, 3],
                         'float': [1.0, 2.0, 3.0],