A tech CEO is on the heart of web controversy after a video from a stadium jumbotron of him embracing a girl who will not be his spouse went viral on social media.
The clip, posted on TikTok Thursday, seems to indicate Astronomer CEO Andy Byron holding his firm’s chief folks officer, Kristin Cabot, in his arms at a Boston Coldplay live performance. Byron is seen within the video clutching Cabot from behind because the pair smiles within the Gillette Stadium crowd. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin may be heard saying “Oh have a look at these two,” as they seem on the jumbotron, just for Cabot to shortly cowl her face and switch away whereas Byron geese to keep away from the cameras.
Martin reacted saying, “Both they’re having an affair or they’re very shy” as the gang cheered and laughed. The band performed on the Boston venue Tuesday and Wednesday night time.
After the video went viral, receiving greater than 20 million views, web sleuths recognized the duo as Byron and Cabot. Byron, who’s married to Megan Kerrigan Byron, has a house close to Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts. He and Kerrigan additionally seem to have two sons. It’s unclear if Kerrigan additionally attended the live performance.
Kerrigan’s Fb web page has since been deleted after customers inundated her account with feedback concerning the viral clip of her husband. Previous to its deletion, she eliminated her husband’s final title from her profile.
She didn’t reply to a Fortune request for remark.
Coldplay’s X account joined in on the web debate posting to the platform: “Beginning with our subsequent present, we’re introducing camera-free viewers sections for folks and their sidepieces.”
Upon figuring out Byron because the assumed man within the video, dozens of customers on LinkedIn flocked to his profile criticizing the chief, some with Coldplay lyric puns, in a pile-on extra generally seen on X or Fb than the social community for job-seekers and aspiring thought leaders.
“Lights didn’t information Andy house,” one remark seen by Fortune learn, referencing the band’s track “Repair You.”
In the meantime one other commenter merely requested, “Who’s the girl on the jumbotron, Andy?”
Byron, in accordance with his now-deleted LinkedIn account, graduated from Windfall Faculty and in the end grew to become CEO of Astronomer in 2023.
Astronomer is a non-public knowledge infrastructure and operations firm that achieved unicorn standing in 2022 with a $1 billion or extra valuation. The corporate not too long ago moved its headquarters to New York Metropolis, and secured $93 million in sequence D funding in a spherical led by Bain Capital Ventures and Salesforce Ventures.
Cabot, in accordance with her now-defunct LinkedIn, additionally makes use of the final title “Thornby” and joined Astronomer in November 2024. She beforehand labored at ObserveIT, Neo4j, and Proofpoint. Public data counsel she has been married a minimum of as soon as. Her present marital standing, nevertheless, couldn’t be confirmed.
In a LinkedIn publish seen by Fortune asserting her hiring, Byron praised Cabot’s “distinctive management and deep experience in expertise administration, worker engagement, and scaling folks methods.”
Astronomer has since turned feedback off on its social media accounts and is but to reply to the controversy.
Astronomer, Byron, and Cabot didn’t reply to a Fortune request for remark.
