diff --git a/sims/utils/markup.py b/sims/utils/markup.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9edc8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sims/utils/markup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+import re
+from html import escape as html_escape
+
+import gi
+
+gi.require_version("Pango", "1.0")
+from gi.repository import GLib, Pango
+
+# Pango cannot render <img ...> from the freedesktop notification spec; strip it.
+_IMG_RE = re.compile(r"<img\b[^>]*/?>", re.IGNORECASE)
+
+
+def render_body_markup(body: str) -> tuple[str, bool]:
+    """Return ``(text, is_markup)`` for a notification body.
+
+    If the body parses as Pango markup, ``text`` is the cleaned-up markup
+    string and ``is_markup`` is True. Otherwise ``text`` is the XML-escaped
+    plain text and ``is_markup`` is False.
+    """
+    if not body:
+        return "", False
+
+    candidate = _IMG_RE.sub("", body)
+    try:
+        Pango.parse_markup(candidate, -1, "\0")
+    except GLib.Error:
+        return html_escape(body, quote=False), False
+    return candidate, True
diff --git a/sims/widgets/notification.py b/sims/widgets/notification.py
index be2b90e..5fcc888 100644
--- a/sims/widgets/notification.py
+++ b/sims/widgets/notification.py
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ from fabric.widgets.image import Image
 from fabric.widgets.label import Label
 from gi.repository import GdkPixbuf
 
+from sims.utils.markup import render_body_markup
+
 NOTIFICATION_IMAGE_SIZE = 64
 
 
@@ -76,9 +78,11 @@ class NotificationWidget(Box):
         )
 
         if body:
+            body_text, body_is_markup = render_body_markup(body)
+            body_kwargs = {"markup": body_text} if body_is_markup else {"label": body_text}
             text_children.append(
                 Label(
-                    label=body,
+                    **body_kwargs,
                     line_wrap="word-char",
                     v_align="start",
                     h_align="start",
diff --git a/sims/widgets/notification_history_entry.py b/sims/widgets/notification_history_entry.py
index 7ce475a..f24ace0 100644
--- a/sims/widgets/notification_history_entry.py
+++ b/sims/widgets/notification_history_entry.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ from fabric.widgets.image import Image
 from fabric.widgets.label import Label
 
 from sims.services.notification_history import HistoryEntry
+from sims.utils.markup import render_body_markup
 
 
 def _time_ago(ts: float, now: float | None = None) -> str:
@@ -71,9 +72,11 @@ class NotificationHistoryEntryWidget(Box):
         text_children.append(header)
 
         if entry.body:
+            body_text, body_is_markup = render_body_markup(entry.body)
+            body_kwargs = {"markup": body_text} if body_is_markup else {"label": body_text}
             text_children.append(
                 Label(
-                    label=entry.body,
+                    **body_kwargs,
                     line_wrap="word-char",
                     h_align="start",
                     v_align="start",