diff --git a/include/qapi/qmp/qstring.h b/include/qapi/qmp/qstring.h
index ae7698d6c7..ae5b4b44d2 100644
--- a/include/qapi/qmp/qstring.h
+++ b/include/qapi/qmp/qstring.h
@@ -34,7 +34,6 @@ void qstring_append_int(QString *qstring, int64_t value);
 void qstring_append(QString *qstring, const char *str);
 void qstring_append_chr(QString *qstring, int c);
 bool qstring_is_equal(const QObject *x, const QObject *y);
-char *qstring_free(QString *qstring, bool return_str);
 void qstring_destroy_obj(QObject *obj);
 
 #endif /* QSTRING_H */
diff --git a/qobject/qstring.c b/qobject/qstring.c
index af7c18ca73..c1891beda0 100644
--- a/qobject/qstring.c
+++ b/qobject/qstring.c
@@ -168,33 +168,16 @@ bool qstring_is_equal(const QObject *x, const QObject *y)
                    qobject_to(QString, y)->string);
 }
 
-/**
- * qstring_free(): Free the memory allocated by a QString object
- *
- * Return: if @return_str, return the underlying string, to be
- * g_free(), otherwise NULL is returned.
- */
-char *qstring_free(QString *qstring, bool return_str)
-{
-    char *rv = NULL;
-
-    if (return_str) {
-        rv = qstring->string;
-    } else {
-        g_free(qstring->string);
-    }
-
-    g_free(qstring);
-
-    return rv;
-}
-
 /**
  * qstring_destroy_obj(): Free all memory allocated by a QString
  * object
  */
 void qstring_destroy_obj(QObject *obj)
 {
+    QString *qs;
+
     assert(obj != NULL);
-    qstring_free(qobject_to(QString, obj), FALSE);
+    qs = qobject_to(QString, obj);
+    g_free(qs->string);
+    g_free(qs);
 }