diff --git a/plugins/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Repository.java b/plugins/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Repository.java
index b1471e417f9..34e4d78f8cf 100644
--- a/plugins/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Repository.java
+++ b/plugins/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Repository.java
@@ -306,11 +306,12 @@ public class S3Repository extends BlobStoreRepository {
 
         String basePath = getValue(metadata.settings(), settings, Repository.BASE_PATH_SETTING, Repositories.BASE_PATH_SETTING);
         if (Strings.hasLength(basePath)) {
-            BlobPath path = new BlobPath();
-            for(String elem : basePath.split("/")) {
-                path = path.add(elem);
+            if (basePath.startsWith("/")) {
+                basePath = basePath.substring(1);
+                deprecationLogger.deprecated("S3 repository base_path trimming the leading `/`, and " +
+                                                 "leading `/` will not be supported for the S3 repository in future releases");
             }
-            this.basePath = path;
+            this.basePath = new BlobPath().add(basePath);
         } else {
             this.basePath = BlobPath.cleanPath();
         }
diff --git a/plugins/repository-s3/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3RepositoryTests.java b/plugins/repository-s3/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3RepositoryTests.java
index f8940c6158c..915183888b6 100644
--- a/plugins/repository-s3/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3RepositoryTests.java
+++ b/plugins/repository-s3/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3RepositoryTests.java
@@ -104,4 +104,17 @@ public class S3RepositoryTests extends ESTestCase {
         Exception e = expectThrows(clazz, () -> new S3Repository(metadata, Settings.EMPTY, new DummyS3Service()));
         assertThat(e.getMessage(), containsString(msg));
     }
+
+    public void testBasePathSetting() throws IOException {
+        RepositoryMetaData metadata = new RepositoryMetaData("dummy-repo", "mock", Settings.builder()
+            .put(Repository.BASE_PATH_SETTING.getKey(), "/foo/bar").build());
+        S3Repository s3repo = new S3Repository(metadata, Settings.EMPTY, new DummyS3Service());
+        assertEquals("foo/bar/", s3repo.basePath().buildAsString()); // make sure leading `/` is removed and trailing is added
+
+        metadata = new RepositoryMetaData("dummy-repo", "mock", Settings.EMPTY);
+        Settings settings = Settings.builder().put(Repositories.BASE_PATH_SETTING.getKey(), "/foo/bar").build();
+        s3repo = new S3Repository(metadata, settings, new DummyS3Service());
+        assertEquals("foo/bar/", s3repo.basePath().buildAsString()); // make sure leading `/` is removed and trailing is added
+    }
+
 }