diff --git a/packages/aws/src/clients/cloudformation.client.ts b/packages/aws/src/clients/cloudformation.client.ts
index 0dbb530a6..5e8f23a80 100644
--- a/packages/aws/src/clients/cloudformation.client.ts
+++ b/packages/aws/src/clients/cloudformation.client.ts
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ export class CloudformationClient implements CloudformationClientInterface {
             return response.Stacks[0];
         } catch (e) {
             this.logHandler.error("Error getting stack description from cloudformation", {error: e}, AwsModuleKeyname);
-            if (e.stack.matches("(.*)" + stackName + "(.*)does not exist(.*)")) {
+            if (e.message.match("(.*)" + stackName + "(.*)does not exist(.*)")) {
                 return undefined;
             } else {
                 throw e;