diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8b9af464a059e..26cdad6c76383 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -28,6 +28,9 @@ Unix systems.
 * [`235e5d6df`](https://github.com/npm/cli/commit/235e5d6df6f427585ec58425f1f3339d08f39d8a)
   ensure correct owner on cached all-packages metadata
   ([@isaacs](https://github.com/isaacs))
+* [`fa6acd2ea`](https://github.com/npm/cli/commit/fa6acd2ea035bf26c04d7885b534d03d5b77e7ba)
+  [npm.community#8450](https://npm.community/t/npm-audit-fails-with-child-requires-fails-because-requires-must-be-an-object/8540)
+  audit: report server error on failure ([@isaacs](https://github.com/isaacs))
 
 ### DEPENDENCIES
 
diff --git a/lib/audit.js b/lib/audit.js
index 37b54d6eca140..c86566403a2bf 100644
--- a/lib/audit.js
+++ b/lib/audit.js
@@ -196,7 +196,10 @@ function auditCmd (args, cb) {
       } else if (err.statusCode === 404) {
         msg = `Your configured registry (${opts.registry}) does not support audit requests.`
       } else {
-        msg = `Your configured registry (${opts.registry}) does not support audit requests, or the audit endpoint is temporarily unavailable.`
+        msg = `Your configured registry (${opts.registry}) may not support audit requests, or the audit endpoint may be temporarily unavailable.`
+      }
+      if (err.body.length) {
+        msg += '\nThe server said: ' + err.body
       }
       const ne = new Error(msg)
       ne.code = 'ENOAUDIT'