diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/10857-github_deploy_key-err.yml b/changelogs/fragments/10857-github_deploy_key-err.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..58bac31c5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/10857-github_deploy_key-err.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "github_deploy_key - fix bug during error handling if no body was present in the result (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/issues/10853, https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/10857)."
diff --git a/plugins/modules/github_deploy_key.py b/plugins/modules/github_deploy_key.py
index 4ec7fbb769..abc9e6cfaf 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/github_deploy_key.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/github_deploy_key.py
@@ -284,6 +284,8 @@ class GithubDeployKey(object):
         body = info.get('body')
         if body:
             err = self.module.from_json(body)['message']
+        else:
+            err = None
 
         if status_code == 401:
             self.module.fail_json(msg="Failed to connect to {0} due to invalid credentials".format(self.github_url), http_status_code=status_code, error=err)