Chris Martin kiss cam catches Astronomer CEO in ‘affair’ at Coldplay show

Up until Wednesday night, former Silicon Valley executive Andy Byron probably wasn’t known outside his professional world of tech, data analytics and AI, but that all changed when the married CEO attended a Coldplay concert and was caught on a stadium jumbotron, canoodling with a woman who is not his wife, according to a rather painful TikTok clip that went viral overnight.

It was none other that Chris Martin himself who provided the commentary as the jumbotron camera at Gillette Stadium in Boston surveyed the audience and unknowingly singled out the Astronomer CEO and his female friend, identified as Kristin Cabot, the company’s Chief People Officer, according to The Sun. As the kiss cam fixed on Byron and Cabot, they were initially seen on the big screen embracing and smiling. She was leaning back in his arms, as they both swayed to the music.

“Oh look at these two!” Martin exclaimed to the thousands in the crowd, as if to celebrate Byron and Cabot’s evident bliss with each other. When Byron and Cabot realized that their intimate moment was being projected onto the big screen, she clapped her hands in front of her face and turned away. The salt-and-pepper-haired Byron immediately dove down behind a barrier.

“All right. Come on. You’re OK,” Martin said. But in the next split second,  the singer realized the camera had caught the couple in an apparent compromising moment. “Oh what?” he laughed uncomfortably before saying: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”

For another split second, Cabot remained with her back to the camera, then stepped out of view.

As of Thursday morning, the clip has racked up more than 5 million views, according to the Daily Mail. Quite a number of people commenting on the video identified the couple as Byron and Cabot.

“Oh my God that looks like Astronomer CEO Andy Byron AND Astronomer Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot???” one person said in a comment that’s been liked by more than 122,000 people. “Oh that’s gonna be one awkward board meeting.”

Others noted that a woman standing next to Cabot, looking embarrassed about the situation, was identified as another member of the company’s executive team. “Yeah looks like the whole team knows. That makes it even worse for their partners,” one person said.

As people were convinced that Byron and Cabot wouldn’t be acting that way on camera, unless they were doing something they shouldn’t, two quipped, “Imagine being caught by Coldplay,” and “Chris Martin helping to consciously uncouple another couple.”

Both The Sun and Newsweek said they had reached out to Astronomer and to Byron, his wife, Megan Kerrigan Byron, and to Cabot for comment but had not heard back. Newsweek said that it wasn’t clear whether Megan Kerrigan Byron had been at the concert as well, but her Facebook page was inundated with messages of support before she deactivated her account Thursday morning. One comment read: “I really hope if she sees all this and it’s news to her that she is surrounded by people who truly love and support her to help her get through this. This is so wrong and hurtful.”

Coldplay played Tuesday and Wednesday at Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL’s New England Patriots, in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Newsweek, citing public records, said that Byron and his wife live in nearby Northborough.

Astronomer is a private data infrastructure startup that achieved “unicorn” status in 2022 with a $1 billion or more valuation, Newsweek reported. The company recently moved its headquarters to New York City.

Byron became CEO at Astronomer in July 2023, according to his LinkedIn. Before that, he served as president for three years at Lacework, a Silicon Valley-based company, which is involved in computer and network security and is now part of Fortinet, a cloud-native application protection platform. Much of Byron’s career has been based in the Boston  area, which may explain why he and his wife currently live there.

Meanwhile, Cabot, who also is reportedly married, began working at Astronomer in November, describing herself on LInkedIn as “a passionate People leader known for building award-winning cultures from the ground up for fast-growing startups and multi-national corporations.” Cabot also said she tries to “;ead by example and win trust with employees of all levels, from CEOs to managers to assistants.”