diff --git a/services/webhook/discord.go b/services/webhook/discord.go
index cdab4d6733..2383a1402b 100644
--- a/services/webhook/discord.go
+++ b/services/webhook/discord.go
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ func (discordHandler) UnmarshalForm(bind func(any)) forms.WebhookForm {
 type (
 	// DiscordEmbedFooter for Embed Footer Structure.
 	DiscordEmbedFooter struct {
-		Text string `json:"text,omitempty"`
+		Text string `json:"text"`
 	}
 
 	// DiscordEmbedAuthor for Embed Author Structure
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ type (
 		Description string              `json:"description"`
 		URL         string              `json:"url"`
 		Color       int                 `json:"color"`
-		Footer      DiscordEmbedFooter  `json:"footer"`
+		Footer      *DiscordEmbedFooter `json:"footer,omitempty"`
 		Author      DiscordEmbedAuthor  `json:"author"`
 		Fields      []DiscordEmbedField `json:"fields,omitempty"`
 	}
diff --git a/services/webhook/discord_test.go b/services/webhook/discord_test.go
index e94486def8..23745b421a 100644
--- a/services/webhook/discord_test.go
+++ b/services/webhook/discord_test.go
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 package webhook
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
+	"io"
 	"testing"
 
 	webhook_model "forgejo.org/models/webhook"
@@ -354,8 +356,15 @@ func TestDiscordJSONPayload(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(t, "https://discord.example.com/", req.URL.String())
 	assert.Equal(t, "sha256=", req.Header.Get("X-Hub-Signature-256"))
 	assert.Equal(t, "application/json", req.Header.Get("Content-Type"))
+
+	buf, err := io.ReadAll(req.Body)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	// https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/issues/11573
+	assert.NotContains(t, string(buf), `"footer":`)
+
 	var body DiscordPayload
-	err = json.NewDecoder(req.Body).Decode(&body)
+	err = json.NewDecoder(bytes.NewReader(buf)).Decode(&body)
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 	assert.Equal(t, "[`2020558`](http://localhost:3000/test/repo/commit/2020558fe2e34debb818a514715839cabd25e778) commit message \\- user1\n[`2020558`](http://localhost:3000/test/repo/commit/2020558fe2e34debb818a514715839cabd25e778) commit message \\- user1", body.Embeds[0].Description)
 }