diff --git a/djangocms_text_ckeditor/models.py b/djangocms_text_ckeditor/models.py
index 60bbc54..be7777c 100644
--- a/djangocms_text_ckeditor/models.py
+++ b/djangocms_text_ckeditor/models.py
@@ -1,12 +1,16 @@
 import re
+import sys
+
+from django.utils.encoding import force_unicode
 from django.db import models
-from cms.models import CMSPlugin
 from django.utils.html import strip_tags
 from django.utils.text import Truncator
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
-import sys
-from djangocms_text_ckeditor.utils import plugin_tags_to_id_list, replace_plugin_tags, plugin_to_tag
-from djangocms_text_ckeditor.html import clean_html, extract_images
+
+from cms.models import CMSPlugin
+
+from .utils import plugin_tags_to_id_list, replace_plugin_tags, plugin_to_tag
+from .html import clean_html, extract_images
 
 
 class AbstractText(CMSPlugin):
@@ -22,6 +26,10 @@ class AbstractText(CMSPlugin):
     def __unicode__(self):
         return Truncator(strip_tags(self.body)).words(3, truncate="...")
 
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        super(AbstractText, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+        self.body = force_unicode(self.body)
+
     def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
         body = self.body
         body = extract_images(body, self)