diff --git a/charms/istio-pilot/src/charm.py b/charms/istio-pilot/src/charm.py
index 8ca6617d..95923746 100755
--- a/charms/istio-pilot/src/charm.py
+++ b/charms/istio-pilot/src/charm.py
@@ -439,6 +439,10 @@ def _get_ingress_auth_data(self, event) -> dict:
                 if app != self.app
             }
 
+            # Go into waiting status if there is no ingress-auth data
+            if not ingress_auth_data:
+                raise ErrorWithStatus("Waiting for the auth provider data.", WaitingStatus)
+
             # We only support a single ingress-auth relation, so we can unpack and return just the
             # contents
             if len(ingress_auth_data) > 1:
diff --git a/charms/istio-pilot/tests/unit/test_charm.py b/charms/istio-pilot/tests/unit/test_charm.py
index 0b2efe39..d04b04d9 100644
--- a/charms/istio-pilot/tests/unit/test_charm.py
+++ b/charms/istio-pilot/tests/unit/test_charm.py
@@ -216,6 +216,8 @@ def test_ingress_auth_and_gateway(
 
         harness.begin()
 
+        harness.charm.log = MagicMock()
+
         # Do a reconcile
         harness.charm.on.config_changed.emit()
 
@@ -228,9 +230,18 @@ def test_ingress_auth_and_gateway(
 
         # Add "broken" ingress_auth (empty data) and check that we remove the gateway
         rel_id = harness.add_relation("ingress-auth", "other")
+        add_data_to_sdi_relation(harness, rel_id, "other", {})
         mocked_remove_gateway.assert_called_once
         mocked_remove_gateway.reset_mock()
 
+        assert harness.charm.model.unit.status == WaitingStatus(
+            "Execution handled 1 errors.  See logs for details."
+        )
+        assert (
+            "Handled error 0/1: WaitingStatus('Waiting for the auth provider data.')"
+            in harness.charm.log.info.call_args.args
+        )
+
         # Remove ingress_auth relation and check that we re-add the gateway
         harness.remove_relation(rel_id)
         assert krh_lightkube_client.apply.call_count == 1
@@ -570,6 +581,17 @@ def test_get_ingress_auth_data_empty(
 
         assert len(ingress_auth_data) == 0
 
+    def test_get_ingress_auth_data_empty_error(self, harness):
+        """Tests that the _get_ingress_auth_data helper returns the correct relation data."""
+        harness.begin()
+        rel_id = harness.add_relation("ingress-auth", "other")
+        add_data_to_sdi_relation(harness, rel_id, "other", {})
+        with pytest.raises(ErrorWithStatus) as err:
+            harness.charm._get_ingress_auth_data("not-relation-broken-event")
+
+        assert err.value.status_type.name == "waiting"
+        assert "Waiting for the auth provider data." == err.value.msg
+
     def test_get_ingress_auth_data_too_many_relations(
         self,
         harness,