diff --git a/src/core/CMakeLists.txt b/src/core/CMakeLists.txt
--- a/src/core/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/core/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
     GROUP_BASE_NAME KF
     VERSION ${KF5_VERSION}
     DEPRECATED_BASE_VERSION 0
-    DEPRECATION_VERSIONS 4.8
+    DEPRECATION_VERSIONS 4.8 5.65
     EXCLUDE_DEPRECATED_BEFORE_AND_AT ${EXCLUDE_DEPRECATED_BEFORE_AND_AT}
 )
 # reminder trigger to apply KITEMMODELS_ENABLE_DEPRECATED_SINCE & friends to KConcatenateRowsProxyModel when the time is there
diff --git a/src/core/krecursivefilterproxymodel.h b/src/core/krecursivefilterproxymodel.h
--- a/src/core/krecursivefilterproxymodel.h
+++ b/src/core/krecursivefilterproxymodel.h
@@ -20,10 +20,11 @@
 #ifndef KRECURSIVEFILTERPROXYMODEL_H
 #define KRECURSIVEFILTERPROXYMODEL_H
 
-#include <QSortFilterProxyModel>
-
 #include "kitemmodels_export.h"
 
+#if KITEMMODELS_ENABLE_DEPRECATED_SINCE(5, 65)
+#include <QSortFilterProxyModel>
+
 class KRecursiveFilterProxyModelPrivate;
 
 /**
@@ -87,14 +88,16 @@
 
   @since 4.5
 
+  @deprecated since 5.65, use QSortFilterProxyModel::setRecursiveFilteringEnabled(true) instead. See detailed description.
 */
 class KITEMMODELS_EXPORT KRecursiveFilterProxyModel : public QSortFilterProxyModel
 {
     Q_OBJECT
 public:
     /**
       Constructor
     */
+    KITEMMODELS_DEPRECATED_VERSION(5, 65, "Use QSortFilterProxyModel directly and QSortFilterProxyModel::setRecursiveFilteringEnabled(true)")
     explicit KRecursiveFilterProxyModel(QObject *parent = nullptr);
 
     /**
@@ -136,3 +139,4 @@
 
 #endif
 
+#endif
diff --git a/src/core/krecursivefilterproxymodel.cpp b/src/core/krecursivefilterproxymodel.cpp
--- a/src/core/krecursivefilterproxymodel.cpp
+++ b/src/core/krecursivefilterproxymodel.cpp
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 #include "krecursivefilterproxymodel.h"
 
+#if KITEMMODELS_BUILD_DEPRECATED_SINCE(5, 65)
 #include <QMetaMethod>
 
 // Maintainability note:
@@ -425,3 +426,4 @@
 }
 
 #include "moc_krecursivefilterproxymodel.cpp"
+#endif