An intimate moment turned into a toe-curling scandal at a Coldplay concert when a “kiss cam” rested for a few seconds on a canoodling couple who quickly hid their faces and ducked out of the frame, prompting lead singer Chris Martin to announce: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re very shy.”
Turns out the man with his arms wrapped around the woman was Andy Byron, the married CEO of tech company Astronomer. The object of his affection was Kristin Cabot, the head of human resources at the software company.
The video of the couple embracing on the big screen during the Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough soon went viral on social media.
Byron has been the CEO of the start-up that works with data operations software since 2023. He has two children with his wife, educator Megan Kerrigan Byron, who has reportedly deleted her Facebook profile.
The incident has spawned several fake posts that have garnered millions of views. One fake post involves a statement attributed to
Coldplay. It reads: “Starting with our next show, we’re introducing camera-free audience sections for people and their sidepieces.”
Another deals with a statement “from” Byron himself. It begins with “I want to acknowledge the moment that’s been circulating online” and ends with “as a friend once sang: ‘Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you’”.
The only statement that is official is the one that Astronomer had posted when Cabot joined the company in November 2024: “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,” Byron had said.
Kiss cams are common at concerts, basketball, baseball and hockey games in the US. They have been a source of oohs and ahhs when couples kiss, and there have been occasional marriage proposals via the medium. Given the popularity of kiss cams, the Bafta ceremony in 2016 mimicked the technology, capturing playful moments between Cuba Gooding Jr. and Stanley Tucci, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Maggie Smith.
Astronomer achieved “unicorn” status in 2022 with a valuation of around $1billion and recently secured $93 million in series D funding in a round led by Bain Capital Ventures and Salesforce Ventures.