diff --git a/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/xml/deser/FromXmlParser.java b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/xml/deser/FromXmlParser.java
index 12a716ed8..06d054f0c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/xml/deser/FromXmlParser.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/xml/deser/FromXmlParser.java
@@ -845,11 +845,11 @@ public JsonToken nextToken() throws IOException
                         token = _nextToken();
                         continue;
                     }
-                    // 29-Mar-2021, tatu: This seems like an error condition...
-                    //   How should we indicate it? As of 2.13, report as unexpected state
-                    throw _constructError(
-"Unexpected non-whitespace text ('"+_currText+"' in Array context: should not occur (or should be handled)"
-);
+                    // [dataformat-xml#509] 2.13 introduced a defect in which an Exception was thrown here, breaking
+                    // parsing of mixed content arrays (https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-dataformat-xml/issues/509).
+                    // This exception case was removed to enable continued support of that functionality, but more
+                    // robust state handling may be in order.
+                    // See comment https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-dataformat-xml/pull/604#issuecomment-1770080319
                 }
 
                 // If not a leaf (or otherwise ignorable), need to transform into property...
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/xml/failing/UnexpectedNonWhitespaceText509Test.java b/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/xml/deser/UnexpectedNonWhitespaceText509Test.java
similarity index 92%
rename from src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/xml/failing/UnexpectedNonWhitespaceText509Test.java
rename to src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/xml/deser/UnexpectedNonWhitespaceText509Test.java
index 0059dbc4c..76f96448d 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/xml/failing/UnexpectedNonWhitespaceText509Test.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/xml/deser/UnexpectedNonWhitespaceText509Test.java
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 import java.util.*;
 
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.xml.annotation.JacksonXmlElementWrapper;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonPropertyOrder;
@@ -31,6 +32,8 @@ public void setKey(java.lang.String value) {
 	}
 
 	static class MetaData {
+		@JacksonXmlElementWrapper(useWrapping = false)
+		@JacksonXmlProperty(localName = "data")
 		protected List<Data> data;
 
 		public List<Data> getData() {