diff --git a/Koha/Patron/Relationship.pm b/Koha/Patron/Relationship.pm
index 1058f27cac..d8cbb1c18e 100644
--- a/Koha/Patron/Relationship.pm
+++ b/Koha/Patron/Relationship.pm
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ Overloaded method that makes some checks before storing on the DB
 sub store {
     my ( $self ) = @_;
 
-    my @valid_relationships = split /\|/, C4::Context->preference('borrowerRelationship');
+    my @valid_relationships = split /\|/, C4::Context->preference('borrowerRelationship'), -1;
+    @valid_relationships = ('') unless @valid_relationships;
 
     Koha::Exceptions::Patron::Relationship::InvalidRelationship->throw(
         no_relationship => 1 )
diff --git a/members/memberentry.pl b/members/memberentry.pl
index 462cebd7a1..022bef7770 100755
--- a/members/memberentry.pl
+++ b/members/memberentry.pl
@@ -107,7 +107,8 @@ my @messages;
 ## Deal with guarantor stuff
 $template->param( relationships => scalar $patron->guarantor_relationships ) if $patron;
 
-my @relations = split /\|/, C4::Context->preference('borrowerRelationship');
+my @relations = split /\|/, C4::Context->preference('borrowerRelationship'), -1;
+@relations = ('') unless @relations;
 my $empty_relationship_allowed = grep {$_ eq ""} @relations;
 $template->param( empty_relationship_allowed => $empty_relationship_allowed );