diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 58fc4c7897..4b9d42eefd 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -64,15 +64,8 @@ if host_machine.system() != 'windows'
 endif
 gstcontroller_dep = dependency('gstreamer-controller-1.0', version : gst_req,
   fallback : ['gstreamer', 'gst_controller_dep'])
-
-# gst-validate has a hard-dep on json-glib-1.0 so maintain optionality of it all
-# by only dragging it in as a fallback if we know we can satisfy the dependencies
-if dependency('json-glib-1.0').found()
-  gstvalidate_dep = dependency('gst-validate-1.0', version : gst_req, required : false,
-    fallback : ['gst-devtools', 'validate_dep'])
-else
-  gstvalidate_dep = dependency('gst-validate-1.0', vesion: gst_req, required : false)
-endif
+gstvalidate_dep = dependency('gst-validate-1.0', version : gst_req, required : false,
+  fallback : ['gst-devtools', 'validate_dep'])
 
 gio_dep = dependency('gio-2.0', version : glib_req)
 libxml_dep = dependency('libxml-2.0')