diff --git a/lib/internal/fs/cp/cp.js b/lib/internal/fs/cp/cp.js
index 1ec5a2d89cac..0c4338711690 100644
--- a/lib/internal/fs/cp/cp.js
+++ b/lib/internal/fs/cp/cp.js
@@ -398,8 +398,7 @@ async function onLink(destStat, src, dest, opts) {
   // Do not copy if src is a subdir of dest since unlinking
   // dest in this case would result in removing src contents
   // and therefore a broken symlink would be created.
-  const srcStat = await stat(src);
-  if (srcStat.isDirectory() && isSrcSubdir(resolvedDest, resolvedSrc)) {
+  if (srcIsDir && isSrcSubdir(resolvedDest, resolvedSrc)) {
     throw new ERR_FS_CP_SYMLINK_TO_SUBDIRECTORY({
       message: `cannot overwrite ${resolvedDest} with ${resolvedSrc}`,
       path: dest,
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-fs-cp-async-dangling-symlink-over-symlink.mjs b/test/parallel/test-fs-cp-async-dangling-symlink-over-symlink.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a1761aade426
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-fs-cp-async-dangling-symlink-over-symlink.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+// This tests that cp() replaces an existing symlink with a dangling one.
+// Refs: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/66946
+import { isWindows, skip } from '../common/index.mjs';
+import { nextdir } from '../common/fs.js';
+import assert from 'node:assert';
+import { mkdirSync, readlinkSync, symlinkSync, writeFileSync, promises } from 'node:fs';
+import { join, resolve } from 'node:path';
+import tmpdir from '../common/tmpdir.js';
+
+if (isWindows)
+  skip('symbolic links need elevated privileges on Windows');
+
+tmpdir.refresh();
+
+for (const verbatimSymlinks of [false, true]) {
+  const dir = nextdir();
+  mkdirSync(dir);
+  const target = join(dir, 'target');
+  writeFileSync(target, 'data');
+  const src = join(dir, 'src');
+  const dest = join(dir, 'dest');
+  symlinkSync('missing', src);
+  symlinkSync(target, dest);
+
+  await promises.cp(src, dest, { force: true, verbatimSymlinks });
+  assert.strictEqual(readlinkSync(dest),
+                     verbatimSymlinks ? 'missing' : resolve(dir, 'missing'));
+}