diff --git a/src/components/views/elements/MessageEditor.js b/src/components/views/elements/MessageEditor.js
index 026f92238b..104e805c05 100644
--- a/src/components/views/elements/MessageEditor.js
+++ b/src/components/views/elements/MessageEditor.js
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@ import {_t} from '../../../languageHandler';
 import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
 import dis from '../../../dispatcher';
 import EditorModel from '../../../editor/model';
-import {PlainPart} from '../../../editor/parts';
 import {getCaretOffset, setCaretPosition} from '../../../editor/caret';
+import parseEvent from '../../../editor/parse-event';
 import {MatrixEvent, MatrixClient} from 'matrix-js-sdk';
 
 export default class MessageEditor extends React.Component {
@@ -37,9 +37,7 @@ export default class MessageEditor extends React.Component {
 
     constructor(props, context) {
         super(props, context);
-        const body = this.props.event.getContent().body;
-        this.model = new EditorModel();
-        this.model.update(body, undefined, {offset: body.length});
+        this.model = new EditorModel(parseEvent(this.props.event));
         this.state = {
             parts: this.model.serializeParts(),
         };
diff --git a/src/editor/parse-event.js b/src/editor/parse-event.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..711529defe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/editor/parse-event.js
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2019 New Vector Ltd
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+import { MATRIXTO_URL_PATTERN } from '../linkify-matrix';
+import { PlainPart, UserPillPart, RoomPillPart } from "./parts";
+
+function parseHtmlMessage(html) {
+    const REGEX_MATRIXTO = new RegExp(MATRIXTO_URL_PATTERN);
+    const nodes = Array.from(new DOMParser().parseFromString(html, "text/html").body.childNodes);
+    const parts = nodes.map(n => {
+        switch (n.nodeType) {
+            case Node.TEXT_NODE:
+                return new PlainPart(n.nodeValue);
+            case Node.ELEMENT_NODE:
+                switch (n.nodeName) {
+                    case "MX-REPLY":
+                        return null;
+                    case "A": {
+                        const {href} = n;
+                        const pillMatch = REGEX_MATRIXTO.exec(href) || [];
+                        const resourceId = pillMatch[1]; // The room/user ID
+                        const prefix = pillMatch[2]; // The first character of prefix
+                        switch (prefix) {
+                            case "@": return new UserPillPart(resourceId);
+                            case "#": return new RoomPillPart(resourceId);
+                            default: return new PlainPart(n.innerText);
+                        }
+                    }
+                    default:
+                        return new PlainPart(n.innerText);
+                }
+        }
+    }).filter(p => !!p);
+    return parts;
+}
+
+export default function parseEvent(event) {
+    const content = event.getContent();
+    if (content.format === "org.matrix.custom.html") {
+        return parseHtmlMessage(content.formatted_body);
+    } else {
+        return [new PlainPart(content.body)];
+    }
+}