diff --git a/src/Text/Pandoc/Writers/Docx.hs b/src/Text/Pandoc/Writers/Docx.hs
index 0174a8501..13c4edb3c 100644
--- a/src/Text/Pandoc/Writers/Docx.hs
+++ b/src/Text/Pandoc/Writers/Docx.hs
@@ -1011,12 +1011,14 @@ blockToOpenXML' opts (Table _ blkCapt specs thead tbody tfoot) = do
                       $ blockToOpenXML opts (Para caption)
   let alignmentFor al = mknode "w:jc" [("w:val",alignmentToString al)] ()
   -- Table cells require a <w:p> element, even an empty one!
-  -- Not in the spec but in Word 2007, 2010. See #4953.
+  -- Not in the spec but in Word 2007, 2010. See #4953. And
+  -- apparently the last element must be a <w:p>, see #6983.
   let cellToOpenXML (al, cell) = do
         es <- withParaProp (alignmentFor al) $ blocksToOpenXML opts cell
-        return $ if any (\e -> qName (elName e) == "p") (onlyElems es)
-           then es
-           else es ++ [Elem $ mknode "w:p" [] ()]
+        return $
+          case reverse (onlyElems es) of
+            e:_ | qName (elName e) == "p" -> es
+            _ -> es ++ [Elem $ mknode "w:p" [] ()]
   headers' <- mapM cellToOpenXML $ zip aligns headers
   rows' <- mapM (mapM cellToOpenXML . zip aligns) rows
   let borderProps = Elem $ mknode "w:tcPr" []