Tech CEO resigns after Coldplay concert cheating video goes viral


For my 2025 bingo card, I certainly did not have us getting an epic viral moment… from a Coldplay concert, but here we are. On Wednesday (yes, we’re only five days in to Kiss Cam Gate!) Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot attended a Coldplay concert in Boston, and gave the world a master class in what NOT to do when the Kiss Cam lands on you in the midst of an affair. We the public probably would have been none the wiser had Andy not ducked out of view, or Kristin hadn’t hid her face in her hands and then turned her back to the camera. (Sidenote: a couple has helpfully put together a tutorial on better ways to play off such a moment. The world truly is coming together in hard times.) Complicating matters is that Andy and Kristen aren’t merely lovers, they’re also coworkers at billion-dollar tech company, Astronomer. And they’re not merely coworkers, they’re both C-Suite Leadership, with Andy CEO and Kristin the Chief People Officer, or Human Resources. Yikes!!

So after the story blew up on Thursday and Friday, Astronomer came back down to earth over the weekend and made a series of announcements via their LinkedIn page. Here was their first statement:

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.

The Board of Directors has initiated a formal investigation into this matter and we will have additional details to share very shortly.

Alyssa Stoddard was not at the event and no other employees were in the video. Andy Byron has not put out any statements, reports saying otherwise are all incorrect.

That last line was in response to a couple things; a fake statement that was attributed to Andy before being debunked, plus the rumor that attending the concert was a work event/outing. No other employees may have been there, but I’ll stake my life on the fact that whoever that woman is standing to the left of the couple, she KNEW they were being caught in the act! Watch the clip again and just focus on that woman — her facial reaction is the personification of, “Oh, fuuuuuuudge.” Moving right along, Astronomer issued a second statement that CEO Andy had been put on leave:

Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy is currently serving as interim CEO given Andy Bryon has been placed on leave.

We will share more details as appropriate in the coming days.

And then the “coming days” came quickly, with Astronomer confirming they’d let Andy resign as they released a third statement:

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.

[From LinkedIn]

And of course, the whole thing gets messier. Interim CEO Pete DeJoy liked a LinkedIn post made by a former Astronomer colleague in which the poster said, “Yes, I’ve laughed at the memes.” Actually, this makes me like DeJoy more. (Also, his bio says he was a cofounder of Astronomer eight years ago; by my calculations, that means he founded the company when he was 12. Look at the baby face of his profile pic!) There have indeed been some glorious memes, my favorite probably being The Phillies’ own take on a Kiss Cam. I won’t say more so as not to spoil your viewing.

But the messiest part continues to be the trysting duo at the center. As of this writing, Kristin has been put on leave, and the internet uncovered that she divorced her first husband in 2022, and is still married to her second husband, another CEO named Andy, who has a rum business. Andy Byron’s wife, for her part, dropped her married name from her Facebook page and then deleted it. Both couples have adolescent and young adult children, so old enough to be online and mortified by what’s going on. If any lessons can be learned from this, well, obviously don’t cheat! And I’d also like to reiterate: no business is worth tanking, nor marriage worth wrecking… over a Coldplay concert.

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33 Responses to “Tech CEO resigns after Coldplay concert cheating video goes viral”

  1. FYI says:

    My favorite is: “Coldplay just released two singles.”

    • Blogger says:

      🔥

      How mortifying for their families, especially for their children. They’ll get so much flack.

    • Harla says:

      Omg!!! Genius!!!

    • ariel says:

      I realize to the spouses and children involved- this is terrible.
      But it really is a light, delightful moment for the rest of us.

      The sporting events in different cities now have people either fake copying the hiding moves, or carrying signs that denote this *is* my wife.

      And, the online lore about the now jobless ceo- makes it seem like he’s a jerk.
      So, its nice seeing a rich white man getting even one iota of accountability.
      Though i bet he walks away with a big bon voyage money bag.- since no matter what, rich white men always walk away/get kicked away from high profile jobs with giant bags of money.

      • Jenn says:

        Nothing about this is delightful.

      • Barb from SoCal says:

        Thanks very much to FYI for that hilarious quote, to Kismet for the gift of the video (I laughed so hard, it made my day) and for noting what I thought to myself, how embarrassing to blow your life up at a Coldplay concert (also, how embarrassing to be seen at a Coldplay concert period), and to Ariel for commenting on how rich white men always get away with a big money bag, despite being POS’s. And the two of them are both POS’s, gross serial cheaters. It will never be different the next time around folks. You aren’t that special.

  2. Play stupid games win stupid prizes.

    • StellainNH says:

      My daughter was at that concert. She says that it now feels surreal that she was witness to this worldwide piece of news/gossip.

  3. Fandango says:

    She divorced no 1 husband in 2022 but has been an advisor to the board of husband no 2’s biz since 2020. She sounds messy as hell. And already cheating on no 2 (if they’re still together but sounds like they were, at least). The old ‘how you get em’ is definitely true!

  4. ThatGirlThere says:

    So disrespectful and gross. I’m sure he got a nice pay out along with that “resignation.”

  5. Genevieve says:

    Both of them have the faces of people who spout buzzwords and word salads all day, with evangelical fervor.

  6. sevenblue says:

    Wow, it is nice that he didn’t just get away with it. I thought there were other coworkers there? Good that they corrected it, I am sure internet was searching for their coworkers too. It turned into a real cultural event, but the company really acted very professional. At least it seems like they have smart people who know how to handle this type of bad PR that could damage the company’s reputation.

    Some people are trying to find his children’s social media accounts to mock them. Imagine hurting your family like this instead of getting a divorce like a normal person.

  7. Truthiness says:

    I’ve never been a fan of Coldplay (too float-in-the-sky creamy dreamy for me, apologies to anyone here who is a fan). But Chris Martin’s narration of this jumbotron moment was so on the nose and hilarious. The whole day of reactions afterward had me howling.

    Those 2 people were so dumb. If you’re gonna cheat, you go to a NoTell Motel and very dark restaurants really far from your family.

  8. DaveW says:

    I feel for the families and, I’d imagine, soon to be former spouses but the memes on this have had me laughing.

    And while I don’t always appreciate Bethenny Frankel’s take on things, she was spot on in that you don’t cheat at a Coldplay concert; they are so mainstream (and Foxboro/Gillette draws from all over New England) that odds are good you’re going to run into someone…co worker, neighbor, college friend, etc.
    Can attest that anytime I’ve gone to something there I’ve been surprised to see someone I know.

  9. DaveW says:

    Odds are too he’ll land somewhere making another 7 figure salary within 6 months; companies seem to overlook messy men and he seems to have a strong track record.

    She’ll, unfortunately and unfairly, likely have a tougher time landing a comparable job, title and salary no matter how good she is at her job. I know she’s only on leave but imagine they’re negotiating a package for her to depart the company.

    • Noo says:

      @davew agree 100% Andy Byron will come out ahead with help from his friends. So, relatively unfair that the CHRO as a woman might not have the same do-over options. But both have had significant fails in terms of adhering to people policy and fiduciary duty for the CEO. In terms of C suite leadership there are many other more deserving leaders whose future underlings wouldn’t have to question their character and trustworthiness.

    • Tn Democrat says:

      I am actually amazed the company made him resign. She will end up with a massive settlement. If she still needs to work after the settlement, she will go to another company, @#$% her boss, mysteriously get promoted over the poc and women who didn’t #$%& their boss to get ahead and get the job one of them actually earned. Women like that always figure out how to get ahead. Mar-A-Logo-style plastic surgery and she will instantly be set for life with a sleeazy magat type personally and professionally. Women like her deaerve less than zero sympathy. Feel sorry for the people who don’t get promotions while doing all the work because they refused to be mounted by their boss.

  10. Mireille says:

    My thoughts:
    1) I truly feel sorry for their respective spouses and families. They should not have to go through this public humiliation and betrayal.
    2) CEO will be forced to sign non-compete but will get a nice severance package. Or maybe not, once his wife gets back at him through divorce proceedings.
    3) CPO (seriously this title…) will most likely resigned or be fired. Where I work CPO is head of HR. No employee is going to take her seriously after this.
    4) The memes are hilarious. I’m sure Astronomer’s clients are laughing about this too.
    5) Somewhere out there Chris Martin is thinking to himself, oh damn what have I started? But he and Coldplay are probably laughing about this too.

    • Turtledove says:

      re#1 It’s complicated. Obviously, I am sure the betrayed spouses and kids would prefer to go through this privately. But who knows how long this was going on, and so at least now they know what pieces of garbage their spouses/parents are. And again, while privacy would have been better, I hope the betrayed parties can take some small consolation in having the whole worl see what idiots these cheaters were.

      re#5 I can’t imagine being Chris Martin. He just said what came to mind in the moment and then the whole thing exploded. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he does or should feel bad, but it must feel odd to be so accidentally involved in this.

      • Mireille says:

        All jokes aside regarding Martin, he probably does feel bad but it’s not his fault. He shouldn’t feel bad. How was he supposed to know? That he guessed correctly on the affair well that’s just karma on the couple. And he probably did their respective spouses a huge favor.

  11. Kittenmom says:

    I am a gigantic meme nerd and the past few days have been 😹😹😹 I am truly sorry for the spouses and children who have to live through this mess, but the creativity of my fellow humans really brightens my day.

  12. Harla says:

    I’ll just say again, I didn’t know watching 2 people acting stupid was exactly what I needed last week but it kept me chuckling!

  13. Mslove says:

    This man’s arrogance, cheating with the head of HR, and making out in public—yikes. I hope Byron’s wife takes him to the cleaners.

  14. IdlesAtCranky says:

    Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.
    ~ Erma Bombeck

  15. Mamacat says:

    This reminds me of a baseball game I went to last summer. My husband and I were trying to meet up with a friend who was going to the same game. He didn’t respond to our texts for a while, and when he did, he told us he was separated from his wife and would be there with his new girlfriend. Thank goodness he told us because he and his girlfriend ended up on the Jumbotron, and I knew right away that wasn’t his wife.

  16. Call_Me_AL says:

    Thanks for keeping us updated, Kismet! I love this story so much and will definitely be looking for more updates! Celebitches hate us some cheaters! : )

    Ya gotta feel bad for the kids involved, but it’s no one but Andy and Kristen who hurt them. Ouch.

    Some people just never grow up, gotta recreate their teens/twenties “in-love” feeling with a new boyfriend/girlfriend all the time. You are so much more than that, and there’s more to life!

  17. BeanieBean says:

    ‘No other employees were in the video’ is NOT the same as no other employees were at the concert.

  18. Katamari says:

    Super fun extra tea… the woman is from the Cabot family. For those outside of New England, they are one of the original Scrooge McDuck level wealthy folks.

    They are known as Boston Brahmin.

    “And this is good old Boston,
    The home of the bean and the cod,
    Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots,
    And the Cabots talk only to God“

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