diff --git a/contrib/rackspace/heat_keystoneclient_v2/client.py b/contrib/rackspace/heat_keystoneclient_v2/client.py
index 66bc8d4312..64f028e5de 100644
--- a/contrib/rackspace/heat_keystoneclient_v2/client.py
+++ b/contrib/rackspace/heat_keystoneclient_v2/client.py
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@
 
 """Client Library for Keystone Resources."""
 
+import weakref
+
 from keystoneclient.v2_0 import client as kc
 from oslo_config import cfg
 from oslo_log import log as logging
@@ -48,7 +50,7 @@ class KeystoneClientV2(object):
         # get a new trust-token even if context.auth_token is set.
         #
         # - context.auth_url is expected to contain the v2.0 keystone endpoint
-        self.context = context
+        self._context = weakref.ref(context)
         self._client = None
 
         if self.context.trust_id:
@@ -56,6 +58,12 @@ class KeystoneClientV2(object):
             # populates self.context.auth_token with a trust-scoped token
             self._client = self._v2_client_init()
 
+    @property
+    def context(self):
+        ctxt = self._context()
+        assert ctxt is not None, "Need a reference to the context"
+        return ctxt
+
     @property
     def client(self):
         if not self._client:
diff --git a/heat/common/heat_keystoneclient.py b/heat/common/heat_keystoneclient.py
index 97ecf470de..5c445d011e 100644
--- a/heat/common/heat_keystoneclient.py
+++ b/heat/common/heat_keystoneclient.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 import collections
 import uuid
+import weakref
 
 from keystoneclient.auth.identity import v3 as kc_auth_v3
 import keystoneclient.exceptions as kc_exception
@@ -69,7 +70,7 @@ class KeystoneClientV3(object):
         #
         # - context.auth_url is expected to contain a versioned keystone
         #   path, we will work with either a v2.0 or v3 path
-        self.context = context
+        self._context = weakref.ref(context)
         self._client = None
         self._admin_auth = None
         self._domain_admin_auth = None
@@ -96,6 +97,12 @@ class KeystoneClientV3(object):
 
         LOG.debug('Using stack domain %s' % self.stack_domain)
 
+    @property
+    def context(self):
+        ctxt = self._context()
+        assert ctxt is not None, "Need a reference to the context"
+        return ctxt
+
     @property
     def stack_domain(self):
         """Domain scope data.