diff --git a/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-5.0/javaagent/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v5_0/RequestWithHost.java b/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-5.0/javaagent/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v5_0/RequestWithHost.java
index 6fd5767e83a8..e18de7e6d035 100644
--- a/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-5.0/javaagent/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v5_0/RequestWithHost.java
+++ b/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-5.0/javaagent/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v5_0/RequestWithHost.java
@@ -19,9 +19,13 @@ public class RequestWithHost extends HttpRequestWrapper implements ClassicHttpRe
 
   public RequestWithHost(HttpHost httpHost, ClassicHttpRequest httpRequest) {
     super(httpRequest);
-
-    this.scheme = httpHost.getSchemeName();
-    this.authority = new URIAuthority(httpHost.getHostName(), httpHost.getPort());
+    if (httpHost != null) {
+      this.scheme = httpHost.getSchemeName();
+      this.authority = new URIAuthority(httpHost.getHostName(), httpHost.getPort());
+    } else {
+      this.scheme = httpRequest.getScheme();
+      this.authority = httpRequest.getAuthority();
+    }
   }
 
   @Override
diff --git a/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-5.0/javaagent/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v5_0/ApacheHttpClientTest.java b/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-5.0/javaagent/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v5_0/ApacheHttpClientTest.java
index cea57cc51900..36059fd98cbc 100644
--- a/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-5.0/javaagent/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v5_0/ApacheHttpClientTest.java
+++ b/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-5.0/javaagent/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v5_0/ApacheHttpClientTest.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.classic.HttpClients;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.ClassicHttpRequest;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.ClassicHttpResponse;
+import org.apache.hc.core5.http.HttpHost;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.HttpResponse;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.io.HttpClientResponseHandler;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.message.BasicClassicHttpRequest;
@@ -90,6 +91,26 @@ void executeRequestWithCallback(ClassicHttpRequest request, URI uri, HttpClientR
     }
   }
 
+  @Nested
+  class ApacheClientNullHttpHostRequestTest extends AbstractTest {
+    @Override
+    ClassicHttpRequest createRequest(String method, URI uri) {
+      // also testing with an absolute path below
+      return new BasicClassicHttpRequest(method, HttpHost.create(uri), fullPathFromUri(uri));
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    ClassicHttpResponse doExecuteRequest(ClassicHttpRequest request, URI uri) throws Exception {
+      return getClient(uri).execute(null, request);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    void executeRequestWithCallback(ClassicHttpRequest request, URI uri, HttpClientResult result)
+        throws Exception {
+      getClient(uri).execute(null, request, new ResponseHandler(result));
+    }
+  }
+
   @Nested
   class ApacheClientHostAbsoluteUriRequestTest extends AbstractTest {
     @Override