Imagine a packed stadium, Coldplay’s soulful tunes echoing, and then—bam!—a tech CEO and his HR director are caught on the kiss cam in a moment that’s now burned into the internet’s memory.
The Daily Mail reported that during a sold-out Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium in Boston on July 15, 2025, Andy Byron, then-CEO of the billion-dollar AI firm Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company’s HR director, found themselves at the center of a viral scandal that cost them both professionally and personally.
It started innocently enough with the two swaying and embracing during the band’s performance of “Yellow,” as captured in newly released footage obtained by a major entertainment outlet.
The video, shot from behind their seats, shows Byron leaning in for a kiss while Cabot hugged him tightly, both seemingly oblivious to the thousands around them.
They looked relaxed, carefree—until the stadium’s jumbotron zoomed in on them for the infamous kiss cam, turning a private moment into a public spectacle.
The crowd’s reaction was instant, and the clip spread online faster than a progressive policy at a city council meeting, sparking endless speculation about their relationship.
When the kiss cam caught them, Byron dropped his arm, ducked behind a barrier, and stared at the ground like a kid caught sneaking cookies.
Cabot, meanwhile, turned away, covered her face with both hands, and hid behind another woman, mouthing something in apparent distress.
A nearby woman’s red-faced reaction fueled online chatter that she might be another company employee, though Astronomer quickly denied any such connection.
“They’re either having an affair… or they’re very shy,” quipped Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, a line that captures the awkwardness of the moment.
But let’s be real—shy or not, this kind of public display at a corporate level raises eyebrows in a world where personal conduct still matters, despite the cultural push to ignore traditional boundaries.
Byron and Cabot were both placed on leave just days after the incident, with an internal investigation launched to address the obvious conflict of interest and PR nightmare.
Astronomer didn’t mess around, announcing Byron’s resignation on July 19, 2025, after the investigation concluded that leadership standards weren’t met, naming cofounder Pete DeJoy as interim CEO.
The company’s statement was clear: “Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.” That’s a polite way of saying, “You’ve embarrassed us all,” and in a society obsessed with image over substance, it’s no surprise heads rolled.
On the personal front, the fallout was just as messy—Byron’s wife, Megan Kerrigan, dropped his last name on social media and scrubbed family photos, while Cabot’s husband, Andrew Cabot, CEO of a Massachusetts rum company, faces his own public scrutiny amid their shared multi-million-dollar property dealings.
Reports noted, “They were all over each other even when they weren’t on the kiss-cam,” which only fuels the narrative of unprofessional behavior in a time when workplace ethics are under a microscope.
This scandal at Astronomer isn’t just gossip; it’s a reminder that leadership demands discretion, and in an era where every moment can go viral, traditional values of accountability still have a place, no matter how much the cultural tide tries to wash them away.