diff --git a/independent-projects/resteasy-reactive/client/runtime/src/main/java/org/jboss/resteasy/reactive/client/impl/SseParser.java b/independent-projects/resteasy-reactive/client/runtime/src/main/java/org/jboss/resteasy/reactive/client/impl/SseParser.java
index 82e58490b60a3..e503570b36274 100644
--- a/independent-projects/resteasy-reactive/client/runtime/src/main/java/org/jboss/resteasy/reactive/client/impl/SseParser.java
+++ b/independent-projects/resteasy-reactive/client/runtime/src/main/java/org/jboss/resteasy/reactive/client/impl/SseParser.java
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ public void setSseContentTypeHeader(String sseContentTypeHeader) {
     @Override
     public void handle(Buffer event) {
         byte[] newBytes = event.getBytes();
+        event.getByteBuf().release();
         // check if we have partial data remaining
         if (bytes != null) {
             // concat old and new data