diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 1af69ca3d..70a3ba396 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -158,6 +158,7 @@ Bugs fixed
 * Fix text writer not handling visit_legend for figure directive contents.
 * Fix text builder not respecting wide/fullwidth characters: title underline
   width, table layout width and text wrap width.
+* Fix leading space in LaTeX table header cells.
 * #1132: Fix LaTeX table output for multi-row cells in the first column.
 * #1126: Fix double-hyphen to en-dash conversion in wrong places such as
   command-line option names in LaTeX.
diff --git a/sphinx/writers/latex.py b/sphinx/writers/latex.py
index dba141054..f02a07511 100644
--- a/sphinx/writers/latex.py
+++ b/sphinx/writers/latex.py
@@ -782,7 +782,7 @@ class LaTeXTranslator(nodes.NodeVisitor):
                 self.body.append('}{l|}{')
             context += '}'
         if isinstance(node.parent.parent, nodes.thead):
-            self.body.append('\\textbf{')
+            self.body.append('\\textbf{\\relax ')
             context += '}'
         if self.remember_multirow.get(self.table.col + 1, 0) > 1:
             self.remember_multirow[self.table.col + 1] -= 1