diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9acc5778..38fcdf86 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ Changelog for Cass Operator, new PRs should update the `main / unreleased` secti
 ## unreleased
 
 * [FEATURE] [#651](https://github.com/k8ssandra/cass-operator/issues/651) Add tsreload task for DSE deployments and ability to check if sync operation is available on the mgmt-api side
+* [BUGFIX] [#705](https://github.com/k8ssandra/cass-operator/issues/705) Ensure ConfigSecret has annotations map before trying to set a value
 
 ## v1.22.2
 
diff --git a/pkg/reconciliation/reconcile_configsecret.go b/pkg/reconciliation/reconcile_configsecret.go
index 038c3b76..8ce3625c 100644
--- a/pkg/reconciliation/reconcile_configsecret.go
+++ b/pkg/reconciliation/reconcile_configsecret.go
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ func (rc *ReconciliationContext) checkDatacenterNameAnnotation(secret *corev1.Se
 	}
 
 	patch := client.MergeFrom(secret.DeepCopy())
-	secret.Annotations[api.DatacenterAnnotation] = rc.Datacenter.Name
+	metav1.SetMetaDataAnnotation(&secret.ObjectMeta, api.DatacenterAnnotation, rc.Datacenter.Name)
 	return rc.Client.Patch(rc.Ctx, secret, patch)
 }