Coldplay Kiss Cam Scandal: Everything to Know About the Astronomer's CEO Affair

It became a cheating scandal heard around the world!

A kiss cam video from Coldplay's July 15 concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., went viral after it caught now-ex Astronomer CEO Andy Byron hugging a woman from behind. It was later revealed that the blonde woman the tech millionaire was embracing was his colleague, Kristin Cabot.

After Byron and Cabot saw themselves on the big screen, they immediately let go of each other, with Cabot turning her back to the camera and covering her face with her hands. Meanwhile, Byron ducked down to stay out of view.

"Oh, look at these two," Chris Martin said of the pair before they separated.

After seeing their reaction, the frontman added, "Ohhh, what. Either they're having an affair or they're very shy."

OK! learned Byron and Cabot began working together in November 2024 when the latter was onboarded as Astronomer's Chief People Officer. According to the New York Post, the married businessman gushed about his colleague after she was hired.

"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," Byron said in a press release. "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 shared Cabot "has a proven track record of preserving and enriching company culture at organizations experiencing rapid growth."

Following the scandal, Andy's wife, Megan Kerrigan Byron, reportedly dropped her husband's last name from her Facebook profile, per Newsweek, before ultimately deactivating her account.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts court records obtained by The Post confirmed Kristin was separated from her ex-husband, Kenneth Thornby, in 2018 before they officially divorced in 2022. She is believed to have remarried Andrew Cabot, the owner of Privateer Rum.

On July 18, Astronomer announced it had launched a formal investigation after the kiss cam video went viral.

"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 company said, adding it would release additional details.

Astronomer also cleared up the rumors about its senior employee, Alyssa Stoddard, who had been mistakenly identified online, and the alleged statements from Andy.

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

The company shared a follow-up press release, announcing co-founder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy as interim CEO, "given Andy Byron had been placed on leave."

"We will share more details as appropriate in the coming days," Astronomer added.

A few hours after Astronomer shared the updates, the company confirmed Andy had "tendered his resignation" as 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," Astronomer pointed out. "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."

The New York-based company also issued the statements via LinkedIn.

Things heated up even more when TMZ unearthed a second video showing Andy and Kristin canoodling as Coldplay performed their hit song "Yellow." The clip, a shot from behind the pair's seats, caught Andy and Kristin locking lips while they had their arms around each other.

In a July 18 post on X, Astronomer co-founder Ry Walker addressed the viral moment after answering "a couple [of] questions" privately.

"If you had to define Andy Byron in a few words — professionally or personally — how would you describe him?" he asked. "I've found Andy to be professional, I've only ever been on a call with him once. Everyone on the team has praised his leadership to me. So I think this is an unfortunate development that comes as a big surprise."

Ry shared he was a co-founder of the company and early CEO, but he has not been working with the team since 2022. He also clarified he has no information on "ColdplayGate."

During Coldplay's show at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wis., on July 19, Martin poked fun at the viral kiss cam while teasing their fans before the kiss cam made rounds for the Jumbotron.

"We'd like to say hello to some of you in the crowd, how we gonna do that, is we gonna use our cameras and put some of you on the big screen," he said.

The singer added, "Please, if you haven't done your makeup, do your makeup now."

Aside from Andy and Kristin's personal lives, people also began digging into the computer programmer's past, including his workplace history.

A 2018 exposé titled "Fake Hire, Staff Departures Roil SoftBank-Backed Security Startup" revealed that Andy "caused turmoil" when he joined Cybereason as their chief revenue officer in 2017.

The article claimed Andy would "lash out against employees who disagreed with him" and even threatened to fire them. An ex-employee alleged people "could not challenge" the executive.

"The culture has done a 180. People loved the company. Now they hate it," said a staffer.

An ex-employee shared, "The promise was that Cybereason early on [was] something that a lot of people bought into, and it was true and authentic. It's almost sad. ...We started off in the right direction and were very successful, but [with] the pressure to grow employees and revenue, it was never enough to just say we were a fast-growing company. We had to be the fastest-growing."

Andy, on the other hand, brushed off the backlash and downplayed reports of workplace tension with any of the company employees.