The Astronomer CEO and his HR boss whose affair was exposed on a ‘kiss camera’ at a Coldplay concert both appeared to be living perfect family lives before the scandal plunged them into chaos, sources have claimed.
Tech tycoon Andy Byron, 50, yesterday resigned from his role after footage of him with his arms wrapped around Astronomer’s HR chief Kristin Cabot, 52, spread like wildfire across the world.
The co-workers were caught red-faced at the Coldplay concert in Boston, Massachusetts on July 16, with the pair immediately ducking and turning around in a desperate bid to hide their faces from the big screen.
Coldplay front man Chris Martin then cracked a joke which stirred rumours over the pair’s awkward reaction and sent the internet into a frenzy.
‘Oh look at these two! Oh what? Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy,’ Martin said to the crowd.
On Friday, after the video had gained millions of views on social media, New York-based Artificial Intelligence firm Astronomer addressed the viral moment and launched a ‘formal investigation’.
The billion-dollar company then announced the CEO’s resignation on Saturday, saying: ‘Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.’
The scandal has torpedoed the lives of Mr Byron and Ms Cabot, but the real victims are their respective partners, Megan Kerrigan and Andrew Cabot, who appeared to be living the American dream in huge suburban homes.
CEO Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot appeared to be living the American dream before the viral moment
Ms Kerrigan appears to have deleted joyful family photos with Mr Byron and their sons on Facebook.
Among the photos she had posted was one of the family smiling on a hiking trip and at a graduation for one of the boys.
In the hiking photo, the parents and their two children all have their arms around each other as they grin to the camera – all wearing caps – in front of a creek.
And in the graduation snap, Mr Byron and his two sons are dressed smartly in suits with Ms Kerrigan wearing a dress for the milestone moment. One of the sons is wearing his graduation gown and a mortarboard.
The photo was used as Ms Kerrigan’s Facebook cover photo until she first removed ‘Byron’ from her name and then deleted her entire profile on Thursday, wiping all of the pictures she had posted, the New York Post reports.
The outlet reports that Ms Cabot, meanwhile, is married to the CEO of a booze firm – and bought a massive $2.2million home in the seaside town of Rye, New Hampshire, with him less than five months ago.
It is unclear exactly when the pair tied the knot, but documents confirm that Ms Cabot, whose maiden name is Stanek, was married at the time of selling a $1.8million property in Watertown, Mass, earlier this year.
Property records show that the husband and wife purchased the two-story, four bedroom house in February.
She has also shared a second home in the same town with her husband – the head of Privateer Rum – since at least 2023, according to the records.
The Massachusetts-based company described Mr Cabot as its CEO and COO, adding that his ‘ancestor, the original Andrew Cabot (1750-1791), was a merchant, rum distiller and successful American privateer during the American Revolution.’
He shares two children with his first wife Maud, who shared a picture of her ex-husband with Cabot looking loved up at his daughters 25th birthday party on social media in April of last year.
Mr Cabot even posed with his son Henry, 30, in the snaps, and was seen wearing a wedding ring at the event – which was missing during her cozy Coldplay date with Byron.
Ms Cabot’s LinkedIn profile showed that she has been an ‘advisory board member’ for her husband’s company since 2020, but she has now deleted her account.
Astronomer was also a booming company before the scandal hit. In May, the company secured $93million in Series D funding from backers including Bain Capital, Salesforce, Venrock and Meritech.
Mr Byron’s firm is valued at over $1billion, with the company experiencing rapid growth since he became CEO in 2023.
But the American dream quickly turned into a nightmare for both Astronomer and the families involved last week.
The billion-dollar company announced the CEO’s resignation in a statement on Saturday.
‘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,’ the statement said.
‘Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted.’
Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy will stay on as interim CEO.
Astronomer acknowledge the awkward situation in the statement announcing Byron’s resignation.
‘Before this week, we were known as a pioneer in the DataOps space, helping data teams power everything from modern analytics to production AI,’ the statement read.
‘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.’
