diff --git a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
index 8d1b00b099cb..deef20980b58 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
@@ -185,6 +185,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v7.0.0-alpha2...master[Check the HEAD d
 - Omit full index template from errors that occur while loading the template. {pull}25743[25743]
 - In the script processor, the `decode_xml` and `decode_xml_wineventlog` processors are now available as `DecodeXML` and `DecodeXMLWineventlog` respectively.
 - Fix encoding errors when using the disk queue on nested data with multi-byte characters {pull}26484[26484]
+- Preserve annotations in a kubernetes namespace metadata {pull}27045[27045]
 
 *Auditbeat*
 
diff --git a/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/namespace.go b/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/namespace.go
index fd707a4ed819..697f6b599f83 100644
--- a/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/namespace.go
+++ b/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/namespace.go
@@ -114,15 +114,17 @@ func flattenMetadata(in common.MapStr) common.MapStr {
 		}
 	}
 
-	rawLabels, err := in.GetValue("labels")
-	if err != nil {
-		return out
-	}
-	labels, ok := rawLabels.(common.MapStr)
-	if !ok {
-		return out
+	populateFromKeys := []string{"labels", "annotations"}
+	for _, key := range populateFromKeys {
+		rawValues, err := in.GetValue(key)
+		if err != nil {
+			continue
+		}
+		values, ok := rawValues.(common.MapStr)
+		if ok {
+			out[resource+"_"+key] = values
+		}
 	}
-	out[resource+"_labels"] = labels
 
 	return out
 }
diff --git a/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/namespace_test.go b/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/namespace_test.go
index 3e009359eb87..50b52f086d14 100644
--- a/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/namespace_test.go
+++ b/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/namespace_test.go
@@ -52,7 +52,9 @@ func TestNamespace_Generate(t *testing.T) {
 					Labels: map[string]string{
 						"foo": "bar",
 					},
-					Annotations: map[string]string{},
+					Annotations: map[string]string{
+						"spam": "baz",
+					},
 				},
 				TypeMeta: metav1.TypeMeta{
 					Kind:       "Namespace",
@@ -78,11 +80,20 @@ func TestNamespace_Generate(t *testing.T) {
 				"namespace_labels": common.MapStr{
 					"foo": "bar",
 				},
+				"namespace_annotations": common.MapStr{
+					"spam": "baz",
+				},
 			}},
 		},
 	}
 
-	cfg := common.NewConfig()
+	cfg, err := common.NewConfigFrom(Config{
+		IncludeAnnotations: []string{"spam"},
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Could not merge configs")
+	}
+
 	metagen := NewNamespaceMetadataGenerator(cfg, nil, client)
 	for _, test := range tests {
 		t.Run(test.name, func(t *testing.T) {
@@ -109,7 +120,9 @@ func TestNamespace_GenerateFromName(t *testing.T) {
 					Labels: map[string]string{
 						"foo": "bar",
 					},
-					Annotations: map[string]string{},
+					Annotations: map[string]string{
+						"spam": "baz",
+					},
 				},
 				TypeMeta: metav1.TypeMeta{
 					Kind:       "Namespace",
@@ -133,12 +146,21 @@ func TestNamespace_GenerateFromName(t *testing.T) {
 				"namespace_labels": common.MapStr{
 					"foo": "bar",
 				},
+				"namespace_annotations": common.MapStr{
+					"spam": "baz",
+				},
 			},
 		},
 	}
 
 	for _, test := range tests {
-		cfg := common.NewConfig()
+		cfg, err := common.NewConfigFrom(Config{
+			IncludeAnnotations: []string{"spam"},
+		})
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("Could not merge configs")
+		}
+
 		namespaces := cache.NewStore(cache.MetaNamespaceKeyFunc)
 		namespaces.Add(test.input)
 		metagen := NewNamespaceMetadataGenerator(cfg, namespaces, client)