diff --git a/crates/stackable-operator/CHANGELOG.md b/crates/stackable-operator/CHANGELOG.md
index 241631014..f69cabee6 100644
--- a/crates/stackable-operator/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/crates/stackable-operator/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -15,9 +15,11 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 ### Fixed
 
 - Fix the CRD description of `ClientAuthenticationDetails` to not contain internal Rust doc, but a public CRD description ([#846]).
+- `StackableAffinity` fields are no longer erroneously marked as required ([#855]).
 
 [#846]: https://github.com/stackabletech/operator-rs/pull/846
 [#851]: https://github.com/stackabletech/operator-rs/pull/851
+[#855]: https://github.com/stackabletech/operator-rs/pull/855
 
 ## [0.74.0] - 2024-08-22
 
diff --git a/crates/stackable-operator/src/commons/affinity.rs b/crates/stackable-operator/src/commons/affinity.rs
index 21df0cbbc..c2f56b53a 100644
--- a/crates/stackable-operator/src/commons/affinity.rs
+++ b/crates/stackable-operator/src/commons/affinity.rs
@@ -38,15 +38,15 @@ pub const TOPOLOGY_KEY_HOSTNAME: &str = "kubernetes.io/hostname";
 )]
 pub struct StackableAffinity {
     /// Same as the `spec.affinity.podAffinity` field on the Pod, see the [Kubernetes docs](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/assign-pod-node)
-    #[fragment_attrs(schemars(schema_with = "raw_optional_object_schema"))]
+    #[fragment_attrs(serde(default), schemars(schema_with = "raw_optional_object_schema"))]
     pub pod_affinity: Option<PodAffinity>,
 
     /// Same as the `spec.affinity.podAntiAffinity` field on the Pod, see the [Kubernetes docs](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/assign-pod-node)
-    #[fragment_attrs(schemars(schema_with = "raw_optional_object_schema"))]
+    #[fragment_attrs(serde(default), schemars(schema_with = "raw_optional_object_schema"))]
     pub pod_anti_affinity: Option<PodAntiAffinity>,
 
     /// Same as the `spec.affinity.nodeAffinity` field on the Pod, see the [Kubernetes docs](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/assign-pod-node)
-    #[fragment_attrs(schemars(schema_with = "raw_optional_object_schema"))]
+    #[fragment_attrs(serde(default), schemars(schema_with = "raw_optional_object_schema"))]
     pub node_affinity: Option<NodeAffinity>,
 
     // This schema isn't big, so it can stay