diff --git a/runtime/monovm-bridge.m b/runtime/monovm-bridge.m
index 961c748e6d7d..62f17892486b 100644
--- a/runtime/monovm-bridge.m
+++ b/runtime/monovm-bridge.m
@@ -60,6 +60,12 @@
 void
 xamarin_bridge_initialize ()
 {
+#if DOTNET
+	bool use_mono_workaround = xamarin_init_mono_debug && getenv ("XAMARIN_SKIP_INTERPRETER_DEBUGGING_WORKAROUND") == 0;
+#else
+	bool use_mono_workaround = false;
+#endif
+
 	if (xamarin_register_modules != NULL)
 		xamarin_register_modules ();
 	DEBUG_LAUNCH_TIME_PRINT ("\tAOT register time");
@@ -69,9 +75,9 @@
 	DEBUG_LAUNCH_TIME_PRINT ("\tDebug init time");
 #endif
 	
-	if (xamarin_init_mono_debug)
+	if (xamarin_init_mono_debug && !use_mono_workaround)
 		mono_debug_init (MONO_DEBUG_FORMAT_MONO);
-	
+
 	mono_install_assembly_preload_hook (xamarin_assembly_preload_hook, NULL);
 	mono_install_load_aot_data_hook (xamarin_load_aot_data, xamarin_free_aot_data, NULL);
 
@@ -85,7 +91,32 @@
 	mono_install_unhandled_exception_hook (xamarin_unhandled_exception_handler, NULL);
 	mono_install_ftnptr_eh_callback (xamarin_ftnptr_exception_handler);
 
-	mono_jit_init_version ("MonoTouch", "mobile");
+	const char *argc[] = {
+		"",
+		"--interp=-all",
+		"",
+		NULL,
+	};
+
+	if (use_mono_workaround) {
+		// This is a workaround for a runtime bug that prevents debugging from working properly.
+		// We call mono_main to disable interpreter optimizations when debugging, because
+		// mono's own interpreter initialization doesn't take into account that the debugger
+		// might be attached, and the subsequent optimizations can break the debugger.
+		// The stdout dance is to hide mono's "helpful" output telling us the command line
+		// arguments are incorrect (which they would be normally, but we're abusing mono_main
+		// to get the side effects).
+		fflush (stdout);
+		int originalStdout = dup (STDOUT_FILENO);
+		int devnull = open ("/dev/null", O_RDWR);
+		dup2 (devnull, STDOUT_FILENO);
+		mono_main (2, (char**)argc);
+		fflush (stdout);
+		dup2 (originalStdout, STDOUT_FILENO);
+	} else {
+		mono_jit_init_version ("MonoTouch", "mobile");
+	}
+	
 	/*
 	  As part of mono initialization a preload hook is added that overrides ours, so we need to re-instate it here.
 	  This is wasteful, but there's no way to manipulate the preload hook list except by adding to it.