UISearchController text field not receiving touches when another UISearchController is attached to navigationItem.searchController on iOS 26

On iOS 26, UISearchController becomes non-interactive when presenting a second UISearchController from another tab of a UITabBarController.

let tabBar = UITabBarController()
        
        let first = FirstViewController()
        first.title = "First"
        
        let second = SecondViewController()
        second.title = "Second"
        
        let nav1 = UINavigationController(rootViewController: first)
        let nav2 = UINavigationController(rootViewController: second)
        
        nav1.tabBarItem = UITabBarItem(
            title: "First",
            image: nil,
            tag: 0
        )
        
        nav2.tabBarItem = UITabBarItem(
            title: "Second",
            image: nil,
            tag: 1
        )
        
        tabBar.viewControllers = [
            nav1,
            nav2
        ]

The app has two tabs. Each tab has its own UINavigationController.

Tab 1:

• A UISearchController is assigned to navigationItem.searchController.

class FirstViewController: UIViewController {

    private let searchController = UISearchController(
        searchResultsController: nil
    )

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        view.backgroundColor = .systemBackground

        searchController.obscuresBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
        searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self

        navigationItem.searchController = searchController
        navigationItem.hidesSearchBarWhenScrolling = false

        definesPresentationContext = true
    }
}

Tab 2:

• A button presents another UISearchController using present(_:animated:).

class SecondViewController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        view.backgroundColor = .systemBackground

        let button = UIButton(
            type: .system
        )

        button.setTitle(
            "Open Search",
            for: .normal
        )

        button.addTarget(
            self,
            action: #selector(openSearch),
            for: .touchUpInside
        )

        button.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false

        view.addSubview(button)

        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            button.centerXAnchor.constraint(
                equalTo: view.centerXAnchor
            ),
            button.centerYAnchor.constraint(
                equalTo: view.centerYAnchor
            )
        ])
        definesPresentationContext = true
    }

    @objc private func openSearch() {
        let searchController = UISearchController(
            searchResultsController: nil
        )
        navigationController?.present(
            searchController,
            animated: true
        )
    }
}

On iOS 17 and iOS 18 this works correctly.

On iOS 26:

• The search controller appears.
• The Cancel button works.
• The search text field cannot receive touches and does not become first responder.

If I remove: navigationItem.searchController = searchController

from Tab 1, the search controller in Tab 2 works correctly.

This looks like a UIKit regression introduced in iOS 26.