diff --git a/src/material/slide-toggle/BUILD.bazel b/src/material/slide-toggle/BUILD.bazel
index 8ba0c4b72e9c..88cf7b2463ce 100644
--- a/src/material/slide-toggle/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/src/material/slide-toggle/BUILD.bazel
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ ng_test_library(
     ),
     deps = [
         ":slide-toggle",
+        "//src/cdk/a11y",
         "//src/cdk/bidi",
         "//src/cdk/observers",
         "//src/cdk/testing/private",
diff --git a/src/material/slide-toggle/slide-toggle.spec.ts b/src/material/slide-toggle/slide-toggle.spec.ts
index ed97ce8ab4ec..f20ef066c898 100644
--- a/src/material/slide-toggle/slide-toggle.spec.ts
+++ b/src/material/slide-toggle/slide-toggle.spec.ts
@@ -9,9 +9,11 @@ import {
   flushMicrotasks,
   TestBed,
   tick,
+  inject,
 } from '@angular/core/testing';
 import {FormControl, FormsModule, NgModel, ReactiveFormsModule} from '@angular/forms';
 import {By} from '@angular/platform-browser';
+import {FocusMonitor} from '@angular/cdk/a11y';
 import {MatSlideToggle, MatSlideToggleChange, MatSlideToggleModule} from './index';
 import {MAT_SLIDE_TOGGLE_DEFAULT_OPTIONS} from './slide-toggle-config';
 
@@ -310,6 +312,19 @@ describe('MatSlideToggle without forms', () => {
       expect(document.activeElement).toBe(inputElement);
     });
 
+    it('should not manually move focus to underlying input when focus comes from mouse or touch',
+      inject([FocusMonitor], (focusMonitor: FocusMonitor) => {
+        expect(document.activeElement).not.toBe(inputElement);
+
+        focusMonitor.focusVia(slideToggleElement, 'mouse');
+        fixture.detectChanges();
+        expect(document.activeElement).not.toBe(inputElement);
+
+        focusMonitor.focusVia(slideToggleElement, 'touch');
+        fixture.detectChanges();
+        expect(document.activeElement).not.toBe(inputElement);
+      }));
+
     it('should set a element class if labelPosition is set to before', () => {
       expect(slideToggleElement.classList).not.toContain('mat-slide-toggle-label-before');
 
diff --git a/src/material/slide-toggle/slide-toggle.ts b/src/material/slide-toggle/slide-toggle.ts
index bdd9a923ce70..79aafb166f14 100644
--- a/src/material/slide-toggle/slide-toggle.ts
+++ b/src/material/slide-toggle/slide-toggle.ts
@@ -91,7 +91,6 @@ const _MatSlideToggleMixinBase:
     '[class.mat-disabled]': 'disabled',
     '[class.mat-slide-toggle-label-before]': 'labelPosition == "before"',
     '[class._mat-animation-noopable]': '_animationMode === "NoopAnimations"',
-    '(focus)': '_inputElement.nativeElement.focus()',
   },
   templateUrl: 'slide-toggle.html',
   styleUrls: ['slide-toggle.css'],
@@ -193,7 +192,13 @@ export class MatSlideToggle extends _MatSlideToggleMixinBase implements OnDestro
     this._focusMonitor
       .monitor(this._elementRef, true)
       .subscribe(focusOrigin => {
-        if (!focusOrigin) {
+        // Only forward focus manually when it was received programmatically or through the
+        // keyboard. We should not do this for mouse/touch focus for two reasons:
+        // 1. It can prevent clicks from landing in Chrome (see #18269).
+        // 2. They're already handled by the wrapping `label` element.
+        if (focusOrigin === 'keyboard' || focusOrigin === 'program') {
+          this._inputElement.nativeElement.focus();
+        } else if (!focusOrigin) {
           // When a focused element becomes disabled, the browser *immediately* fires a blur event.
           // Angular does not expect events to be raised during change detection, so any state
           // change (such as a form control's 'ng-touched') will cause a changed-after-checked