diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/10461-cronvar-non-existent-dir-crash-fix.yml b/changelogs/fragments/10461-cronvar-non-existent-dir-crash-fix.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c4b77299f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/10461-cronvar-non-existent-dir-crash-fix.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "cronvar - fix crash on missing ``cron_file`` parent directories (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/issues/10460, https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/10461)."
diff --git a/plugins/modules/cronvar.py b/plugins/modules/cronvar.py
index e1acedc81d..979c99bb91 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/cronvar.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/cronvar.py
@@ -135,6 +135,9 @@ class CronVar(object):
                 self.cron_file = cron_file
             else:
                 self.cron_file = os.path.join('/etc/cron.d', cron_file)
+            parent_dir = os.path.dirname(self.cron_file)
+            if parent_dir and not os.path.isdir(parent_dir):
+                module.fail_json(msg="Parent directory '{}' does not exist for cron_file: '{}'".format(parent_dir, cron_file))
         else:
             self.cron_file = None
 
diff --git a/tests/integration/targets/cronvar/tasks/main.yml b/tests/integration/targets/cronvar/tasks/main.yml
index 73ec41abca..7cf9602955 100644
--- a/tests/integration/targets/cronvar/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/tests/integration/targets/cronvar/tasks/main.yml
@@ -122,3 +122,19 @@
       - custom_varcheck1.stdout == '1'
       - custom_varcheck2.stdout == '1'
       - custom_varcheck3.stdout == '0'
+
+- name: Attempt to add cron variable to non-existent parent directory
+  cronvar:
+    name: NOPARENT_VAR
+    value: noparentval
+    cron_file: /nonexistent/foo
+    user: root
+  register: invalid_directory_cronvar_result
+  ignore_errors: true
+
+- name: Assert that the cronvar task failed due to invalid directory
+  ansible.builtin.assert:
+    that:
+      - invalid_directory_cronvar_result is failed
+      - >-
+       "Parent directory '/nonexistent' does not exist for cron_file: '/nonexistent/foo'" == invalid_directory_cronvar_result.msg