diff --git a/packages/react-native/Package.swift b/packages/react-native/Package.swift
index a5c88c5f1315..4271313cf8aa 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/Package.swift
+++ b/packages/react-native/Package.swift
@@ -412,7 +412,10 @@ let reactRuntimeApple = RNTarget(
   name: .reactRuntimeApple,
   path: "ReactCommon/react/runtime/platform/ios",
   excludedPaths: ["ReactCommon/RCTJscInstance.mm", "ReactCommon/metainternal"],
-  dependencies: [.reactNativeDependencies, .jsi, .reactPerfLogger, .reactCxxReact, .rctDeprecation, .yoga, .reactRuntime, .reactRCTFabric, .reactCoreModules, .reactTurboModuleCore, .hermesPrebuilt, .reactUtils]
+  dependencies: [.reactNativeDependencies, .jsi, .reactPerfLogger, .reactCxxReact, .rctDeprecation, .yoga, .reactRuntime, .reactRCTFabric, .reactCoreModules, .reactTurboModuleCore, .hermesPrebuilt, .reactUtils],
+  defines: [
+    CXXSetting.define("REACT_NATIVE_DEBUGGER_ENABLED", to: "1", .when(configuration: BuildConfiguration.debug))
+  ]
 )
 
 let publicHeadersPathForReactCore: String = BUILD_FROM_SOURCE ? "includes" : "."
diff --git a/packages/react-native/scripts/cocoapods/utils.rb b/packages/react-native/scripts/cocoapods/utils.rb
index a903495d8458..c31332b9e6c4 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/scripts/cocoapods/utils.rb
+++ b/packages/react-native/scripts/cocoapods/utils.rb
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ def self.set_gcc_preprocessor_definition_for_debugger(installer)
         self.add_build_settings_to_pod(installer, "GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS", "REACT_NATIVE_DEBUGGER_ENABLED=1", "React-jsinspectornetwork", :debug)
         self.add_build_settings_to_pod(installer, "GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS", "REACT_NATIVE_DEBUGGER_ENABLED=1", "React-RCTNetwork", :debug)
         self.add_build_settings_to_pod(installer, "GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS", "REACT_NATIVE_DEBUGGER_ENABLED=1", "React-networking", :debug)
+        self.add_build_settings_to_pod(installer, "GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS", "REACT_NATIVE_DEBUGGER_ENABLED=1", "React-RuntimeApple", :debug)
         self.add_build_settings_to_pod(installer, "GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS", "REACT_NATIVE_DEBUGGER_ENABLED_DEVONLY=1", "React-jsinspector", :debug)
         self.add_build_settings_to_pod(installer, "GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS", "REACT_NATIVE_DEBUGGER_ENABLED_DEVONLY=1", "React-jsinspectornetwork", :debug)
         self.add_build_settings_to_pod(installer, "GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS", "REACT_NATIVE_DEBUGGER_ENABLED_DEVONLY=1", "React-RCTNetwork", :debug)