diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 0293053f2..f490121aa 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -185,6 +185,7 @@ importFrom(magrittr,"%>%")
 importFrom(stringi,stri_c)
 importFrom(stringi,stri_encode)
 importFrom(stringi,stri_extract_all_regex)
+importFrom(stringi,stri_extract_first_regex)
 importFrom(stringi,stri_isempty)
 importFrom(stringi,stri_join)
 importFrom(stringi,stri_match)
diff --git a/R/helper-functions.R b/R/helper-functions.R
index 26eea88db..defc60f8b 100644
--- a/R/helper-functions.R
+++ b/R/helper-functions.R
@@ -205,13 +205,28 @@ amp_split <- function(x) {
   res <- vector("character", 3)
   # Identify the names found in the string: returns them as matrix: strip the &amp;
   nam <- gsub(pattern = "&amp;", "", unlist(stri_match_all_regex(x, "&amp;[LCR]")))
-  # split the string and assign names to join
-  z <- unlist(stri_split_regex(x, "&amp;[LCR]", omit_empty = TRUE))
 
-  if (length(z) == 0) return(character(0))
+  # Initialize an empty vector of three elements
+  res <- c(L = "", C = "", R = "")
 
-  names(z) <- as.character(nam)
-  res[c("L", "C", "R") %in% names(z)] <- z
+  has <- c(0, 0, 0)
+  # Extract each component if present and remove &amp;[LCR]
+  if (grepl("&amp;L", x)) {
+    has[1] <- 1
+    res[1] <- stri_extract_first_regex(x, "&amp;L.*?(?=&amp;C|&amp;R|$)")
+  }
+  if (grepl("&amp;C", x)) {
+    has[2] <- 1
+    res[2] <- stri_extract_first_regex(x, "&amp;C.*?(?=&amp;R|$)")
+  }
+  if (grepl("&amp;R", x)) {
+    has[3] <- 1
+    res[3] <- stri_extract_first_regex(x, "&amp;R.*?$")
+  }
+
+  if (sum(has) == 0) return(character(0))
+
+  res <- stri_replace_all_regex(res, "&amp;[LCR]", "")
 
   # return the string vector
   unname(res)
diff --git a/R/openxlsx2-package.R b/R/openxlsx2-package.R
index 1188c3f94..e1651b9b4 100644
--- a/R/openxlsx2-package.R
+++ b/R/openxlsx2-package.R
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 #' @import R6
 #' @importFrom grDevices bmp col2rgb colors dev.copy dev.list dev.off jpeg palette png rgb tiff
 #' @importFrom magrittr %>%
-#' @importFrom stringi stri_c stri_encode stri_extract_all_regex
+#' @importFrom stringi stri_c stri_encode stri_extract_all_regex stri_extract_first_regex
 #'   stri_isempty stri_join stri_match stri_match_all_regex stri_match_first_regex
 #'   stri_order stri_opts_collator stri_pad_left stri_rand_strings stri_read_lines
 #'   stri_replace_all_fixed stri_replace_all_regex stri_split_fixed
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-helper-functions.R b/tests/testthat/test-helper-functions.R
index 9d831d052..ac968a746 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-helper-functions.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-helper-functions.R
@@ -119,6 +119,16 @@ test_that("amp_split & genHeaderFooterNode", {
   got <- genHeaderFooterNode(got)
   expect_equal(exp, got)
 
+  xml <- "<headerFooter alignWithMargins=\"0\"><oddFooter>&amp;L^  &amp;D  +&amp;C&amp;R</oddFooter></headerFooter>"
+
+  exp <- list(oddFooter = c("^  &amp;D  +", "", ""))
+  got <- getHeaderFooterNode(xml)
+  expect_equal(exp, got)
+
+  exp <- "<headerFooter differentOddEven=\"0\" differentFirst=\"0\" scaleWithDoc=\"0\" alignWithMargins=\"0\"><oddFooter>&amp;L^  &amp;D  +</oddFooter></headerFooter>"
+  got <- genHeaderFooterNode(got)
+  expect_equal(exp, got)
+
 })
 
 test_that("add_sparklines", {