diff --git a/pandas/core/indexes/multi.py b/pandas/core/indexes/multi.py
index ed7ca079a07b5..601a046498e5d 100644
--- a/pandas/core/indexes/multi.py
+++ b/pandas/core/indexes/multi.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 from functools import partial
 from sys import getsizeof
 
+
 import numpy as np
 from pandas._libs import index as libindex, lib, Timestamp
 
@@ -1084,11 +1085,10 @@ def from_arrays(cls, arrays, sortorder=None, names=None):
             name = None if names is None else names[0]
             return Index(arrays[0], name=name)
 
-        # Check if lengths of all arrays are equal or not,
+        # Check if lengths of all arrays are equal length or not,
         # raise ValueError, if not
-        for i in range(1, len(arrays)):
-            if len(arrays[i]) != len(arrays[i - 1]):
-                raise ValueError('all arrays must be same length')
+        if not _check_equal_length(arrays):
+            raise ValueError('all arrays must be same length')
 
         from pandas.core.categorical import _factorize_from_iterables
 
@@ -1108,6 +1108,7 @@ def from_tuples(cls, tuples, sortorder=None, names=None):
         ----------
         tuples : list / sequence of tuple-likes
             Each tuple is the index of one row/column.
+            A ValueError will be raised if all tuples are not the same length.
         sortorder : int or None
             Level of sortedness (must be lexicographically sorted by that
             level)
@@ -2671,5 +2672,27 @@ def _sparsify(label_list, start=0, sentinel=''):
     return lzip(*result)
 
 
+def _check_equal_length(seq_of_seqs):
+    """
+    Ensure that all sequences in seq_of_seqs are the same length.
+
+    Since this function is time critical, it does zero error checking.
+    A TypeError will be raised if inner sequence does not support len().
+
+    Return True if all sequences are the same length, otherwise False
+    If seq_of_seqs is empty return True as well.
+    """
+    seq_it = iter(seq_of_seqs)
+    try:
+        L0 = len(next(seq_it))
+    except StopIteration:
+        return True
+    else:
+        for seq in seq_it:
+            if len(seq) != L0:
+                return False
+        return True
+
+
 def _get_na_rep(dtype):
     return {np.datetime64: 'NaT', np.timedelta64: 'NaT'}.get(dtype, 'NaN')
diff --git a/pandas/tests/indexes/test_base.py b/pandas/tests/indexes/test_base.py
index 18dbe6624008a..50752c9fb4f87 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/indexes/test_base.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/indexes/test_base.py
@@ -1458,9 +1458,11 @@ def test_str_attribute(self):
         tm.assert_index_equal(idx.str.split(), expected)
         tm.assert_index_equal(idx.str.split(expand=False), expected)
 
-        expected = MultiIndex.from_tuples([('a', 'b', 'c'), ('d', 'e', np.nan),
-                                           ('f', np.nan, np.nan)])
-        tm.assert_index_equal(idx.str.split(expand=True), expected)
+        # This is invalid behavior
+        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            expected = MultiIndex.from_tuples([('a', 'b', 'c'), ('d', 'e', np.nan),
+                                            ('f', np.nan, np.nan)])
+            tm.assert_index_equal(idx.str.split(expand=True), expected)
 
         # test boolean case, should return np.array instead of boolean Index
         idx = Index(['a1', 'a2', 'b1', 'b2'])
diff --git a/pandas/tests/indexes/test_multi.py b/pandas/tests/indexes/test_multi.py
index 719cd2f7e01a4..8199ba441f570 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/indexes/test_multi.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/indexes/test_multi.py
@@ -1727,6 +1727,21 @@ def test_from_tuples_empty(self):
                                           names=['a', 'b'])
         tm.assert_index_equal(result, expected)
 
+    def test_equal_length(self):
+        # Test _check_equal_length
+        from pandas.indexes.multi import _check_equal_length
+
+        seqs = [[1, 2, 3], [2, 3, 4], [0, 1, 0]]
+        self.assertTrue(_check_equal_length(seqs))
+
+        seqs[-1].append(1)
+        self.assertFalse(_check_equal_length(seqs))
+
+        # Test TypeError
+        seqs = [None]
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            _check_equal_length(seqs)
+
     def test_argsort(self):
         result = self.index.argsort()
         expected = self.index.values.argsort()
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_strings.py b/pandas/tests/test_strings.py
index bb31fb9260160..0af7d72ad19c4 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_strings.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_strings.py
@@ -2025,13 +2025,14 @@ def test_split_to_multiindex_expand(self):
         tm.assert_index_equal(result, exp)
         assert result.nlevels == 3
 
-        idx = Index(['some_unequal_splits', 'one_of_these_things_is_not'])
-        result = idx.str.split('_', expand=True)
-        exp = MultiIndex.from_tuples([('some', 'unequal', 'splits', NA, NA, NA
-                                       ), ('one', 'of', 'these', 'things',
-                                           'is', 'not')])
-        tm.assert_index_equal(result, exp)
-        assert result.nlevels == 6
+        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            idx = Index(['some_unequal_splits', 'one_of_these_things_is_not'])
+            result = idx.str.split('_', expand=True)
+            exp = MultiIndex.from_tuples([('some', 'unequal', 'splits', NA, NA, NA
+                                        ), ('one', 'of', 'these', 'things',
+                                            'is', 'not')])
+            tm.assert_index_equal(result, exp)
+            self.assertEqual(result.nlevels, 6)
 
         with tm.assert_raises_regex(ValueError, "expand must be"):
             idx.str.split('_', expand="not_a_boolean")