Former Astronomer CEO Andy Byron reportedly considered suing Coldplay after he was shown on the jumbotron cheating on his wife.
Andy Byron was caught in an intimate moment with the company’s chief people officer, Kristin Cabot – who is not his wife.
During the Coldplay concert in Boston, Chris Martin has a famous tradition of putting the camera on different members of the crowd and making up impromptu songs about them.
The camera panned round to the couple and Byron had his arms around Cabot in a romantic embrace. They also looked very happy, as if they were on a romantic date.
However, when they realized the camera was on them, things took a very awkward turn. Cabot turned her face from the camera and hid behind her hands.
As for the CEO…he ducked down to get away from the camera. Martin then joked “Either they’re having an affair or they’re very shy.” causing the audience to laugh.
Well, the moment was filmed and very quickly went viral on social media.
Internet sleuths then discovered that the CEO of the billion dollar tech company is married to someone else and has two children with his wife, while Cabot is also married to another man.
During their concert at the Camp Randall Stadium in Wisconsin after the viral moment, the 48-year-old singer said: ‘We’d like to say hello to some of you in the crowd,’.
‘How we’re going to do that is we’re going to use our cameras and put some of you on the big screen.’ he warned.
Byron has officially resigned from his role as CEO. In a statement shared to LinkedIn, the company wrote: “As stated previously, Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.
“Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted. The Board will begin a search for our next Chief Executive as Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO.
“Before this week, we were known as a pioneer in the DataOps space, helping data teams power everything from modern analytics to production AI.
“While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not. We’re continuing to do what we do best: helping our customers with their toughest data and AI problems.”
Some online are now wondering if Byron could sue the band for exposing his secret.
Insiders have now revealed Byron is planning to file a lawsuit against the band and the event organizers citing “invasion of privacy” and “emotional distress”.
Attorney Camron Dowlatshahi from MSD Lawyers shared with Page Six: “If we are getting creative, a possible claim would be for defamation, specifically as it relates to Chris Martin characterizing the two as having an ‘affair,’”
A source close to Byron said; “He didn’t consent to being filmed or publicly humiliated. He thinks Coldplay made him a meme.”
Byron would however have to prove that Martin’s comments were defamatory, meaning he would have to prove there was no affair to start with.
Byron would also be required to prove that Martin ‘knew or should have known’ that he wasn’t having an affair and made the comment regardless.
“None of those elements will be met, so any claim against Coldplay would be frivolous,” Dowlatshahi added.
“I also very much doubt that Mr. Byron would want further public scrutiny by bringing a borderline frivolous suit against the event organizers and/or Coldplay.”
Astronomer’s senior director of people Alyssa Stoddard was also there, clearly looking embarrassed and uncomfortable in the moment.
According to one clip shared on TikTok, Byron allegedly said ‘F**king hell, it’s me” while Cabot allegedly said “This is awkward”.
One person online has labelled her reaction to them getting caught as the “entire HR department’s response”.
Ironically, Cabot’s LinkedIn profile claims she “wins trust with employees of all levels, from CEOs to assistants.” This has of course become a running joke online, with one person writing: “She definitely built trust with the CEO,”.
The woman who filmed the now viral moment has revealed what happened after she stopped recording.
Grace Springer’s clip has been viewed over 120 million times.
She revealed: “As soon as it cut off they disappeared, and then Chris tried to save the show kind of, he moved on to another couple and did something really sweet with that couple.
“But people were definitely still talking about it.
“[Martin said] something along the lines of, ‘I hope we didn’t just do something really bad’.”
“I had no clue who the couple was, I thought it was an interesting reaction to the kiss cam and my friends were actually the ones who pushed me to post it after the concert. I never would have expected this,” she said.
“I thought it was more innocent, but the group I was with said ‘no something weird is going on’, because it was kind of the talk of the concert.
“Everybody was talking about it. I was like, I don’t know, I think they were just shy.
“Then I realised I had the video and I looked back on it and when I saw his face I thought this seems suspicious.”
“At first, I was experiencing a little bit of guilt,” she admitted. “It’s heartbreaking to go through something like that, but at the end of the day you need to be held accountable for your actions.
“I really just feel for the partners… I’m hoping that it will give them the opportunity not to waste any more time with a partner that doesn’t give them the respect they deserve.
“Unfortunately, I think a lot of women including myself has been through situations like that. I had people in my life that knew and didn’t tell me, so I would want to be told.
“I don’t have much respect for cheaters, I think at the end of the day you have to do the right thing.
“It doesn’t mean they can’t be good people moving forward.”
It has also come out that in November 2024, Byron gushed about Cabot online. He wrote: “Kristin’s exceptional leadership and deep expertise in talent management, employee engagement, and scaling people strategies will be critical as we continue our rapid trajectory,”.
“She is a proven leader at multiple growth-stage companies and her passion for fostering diverse, collaborative workplaces makes her a perfect fit for Astronomer.”
The press release continued: [Cabot] “has a proven track record of preserving and enriching company culture at organizations experiencing rapid growth,”.
Cabot was also quoted as saying she was left “energized in my conversations with Andy and the Astronomer leadership team about the opportunities that exist here.”
Byron’s wife, Megan Kerrigan Byron, has responded to the scandal.
She has made it clear she is stepping away from her husband publicly, by removing his last name from her social media.
She has since deleted her own social media.
