diff --git a/litellm/proxy/image_endpoints/endpoints.py b/litellm/proxy/image_endpoints/endpoints.py
index e236d24c77f..a4853fe5bda 100644
--- a/litellm/proxy/image_endpoints/endpoints.py
+++ b/litellm/proxy/image_endpoints/endpoints.py
@@ -145,12 +145,11 @@ async def image_generation(
             user_api_key_dict=user_api_key_dict, data=data, call_type="image_generation"
         )
 
-        # Guardrails may redact data["prompt"] directly. Only rebuild from messages if prompt wasn't modified.
-        prompt_after_hook: Final = data.get("prompt")
-        if prompt_after_hook == prompt_value:
-            messages: Final = data.get("messages")
-            if isinstance(messages, list) and messages:
-                data["prompt"] = get_str_from_messages(messages)
+        # Guardrails may redact messages. Always use messages as source of truth if they exist.
+        # If both prompt and messages were modified, prefer messages since that's what guardrails processed.
+        messages: Final = data.get("messages")
+        if isinstance(messages, list) and messages:
+            data["prompt"] = get_str_from_messages(messages)
         data.pop("messages", None)
 
         ## ROUTE TO CORRECT ENDPOINT ##