How the ‘Coldplay cuddle' brought chaos to a marriage – and a $1.5b company

The Age

7 days ago

'Oh, what?' Martin says. The crowd can be heard laughing. 'Either they're having an affair, or they're just very shy,' he quips.
It seems it could be the former. The cruel irony, of course, is that if they hadn't reacted, it would have passed without incident. They might still have got away with it, too, if it weren't for 28-year-old Grace Springer, from New Jersey, who happened to capture the Jumbotron and posted it to TikTok.
Almost instantly, the clip went viral, racking up over 30 million views. The internet was transfixed and delighted in the schadenfreude: the wealthy, married chief executive of a tech firm being caught out canoodling with a colleague, the head of HR no less, in the most criminally uncool of contexts: a Coldplay concert.
Martin is known to be a fan of 'conscious uncoupling', and he certainly seemed conscious of this uncoupling, although he dealt with it like a pro. 'I'm not quite sure what to do,' he said. 'Did we rumble you?'
Mercifully, the cameraman put the couple out of their misery and switched to two friends dressed as giant bananas. Martin then jokingly asked the next fans the Jumbotron identified whether they were 'a legitimate couple'.
Springer maintains her ignorance when it comes to posting the clip. 'I had no idea who the couple was,' she told the US Sun newspaper. 'Just thought I caught an interesting reaction to the kiss cam and decided to post it. A part of me feels bad for turning these people's lives upside down, but play stupid games … win stupid prizes.'
Keyboard sleuths had no such qualms. They quickly identified the man in question as Andy Byron, chief executive of the New York-based software development company Astronomer, which achieved unicorn status with a valuation of over $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) in 2022.
The woman? Kristin Cabot, who was appointed 'chief people officer' of the same company last year.
Byron still appears to be married to Megan Kerrigan Byron, with whom he reportedly has two children. Cabot is divorced, according to reports in the New York Post.
And the equally horrified-looking, red-faced bystander? Quickly identified as another colleague: Alyssa Stoddard, the firm's recently promoted senior director of people, who seems to have joined this apparently extra-marital trip to see Coldplay. One commentator pointed out that she appears to be doing an 'uncannily accurate human representation of the gritted-teeth emoji'.
'Coldplaygate' spirals
Online, it spiralled from there. Eagle-eyed social media users noted that Andy Byron's wife appeared to have removed her married name from her Facebook profile before deleting it entirely, after keyboard vigilantes took to posting the video on her page.
A gushy press release announcing Cabot's hiring from last November was also unearthed. It revealed that Byron is a big fan professionally, if not also personally, as he praised her as a 'perfect fit' for the company, with 'exceptional leadership and deep expertise'. In the same press release, Cabot said she was 'energised in my conversations with Andy and the Astronomer leadership team about the opportunities that exist here'.
Having woken up to discover they were now the most googled people on the planet, Byron and Cabot clocked on and then tried to wipe their digital footprints.
Thousands of users flooded Byron's now-deleted LinkedIn with criticism and Coldplay puns. The company's former chief executive was also forced to comment, saying he has no information on what he dubbed 'Coldplaygate'.
And then, of course, came the jokes – admittedly, they write themselves.
'When a CEO becomes involved in an office romance, the impact ripples far beyond … the resulting power imbalance and conflict of interest can expose a company to legal risk'.
Peter Byrne, head of employment law, Slater and Gordon
'Coldplay tickets $1000, Dinner $300, Divorce $1,300,000,' posted one user on X.
Another said: 'I'd divorce my husband just for attending a Coldplay concert.'
The London Telegraph 's TV critic, Michael Hogan, wrote: 'A CEO copping off with the head of HR at a Coldplay gig is so hilariously basic. It might as well be a regional sales conference at a Novotel or in All Bar One after a day out paintballing.'
Naturally, the work rumour mill is in overdrive with a company source telling the New York Post the couple are a laughing stock internally. 'The text groups and chains of former employees are like … everybody's laughing … and enjoying […] what happened and him getting exposed,' they said.
Jokes aside, the incident could have serious ramifications for Byron, both personally and professionally. Some are calling for him to be removed as chief executive.
On Friday, Astronomer said in a statement it had begun an investigation, adding that 'Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability.'
Lulu Cheng Meservey, a fellow founder, posted on X: 'The CEO is a professional manager who's only been there two years, the HR person has been there less than a year, neither is tied to the identity of the company … Andy Byron is on the board, but he's not a founder and doesn't have control. The other five board members should replace him. You can then use the new CEO announcement as a reset, and get people to focus again on Astronomer's actual business instead of its drama.'
Peter Byrne, head of employment law at Slater and Gordon, suggested it could even constitute a legal risk. 'When a CEO becomes involved in an office romance, the impact ripples far beyond a single department,' he says.
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'When two senior leaders embark on a relationship, the resulting power imbalance and conflict of interest can expose a company to legal risk. Employees may perceive, or allege, favouritism.
'Harassment or constructive dismissal claims can arise if team members feel sidelined. In such cases, HR and the board must act decisively, or risk damaging morale and inviting trouble.'
Yet while relationships between chief executives and their subordinates naturally draw a lot of media attention, to be explicitly fired for it is rare, according to exechange.com, a company that conducts chief executive exit analysis. Since it began tracking the data in 2017, less than 2 per cent of chief executives have been fired because of misconduct issues.
A 'statement' from Byron – soon debunked as a fake – was widely circulated online.
In it, he purportedly apologised to his wife, family and employees, and signed off by quoting the lyrics from Coldplay's Fix You (until that point, it is semi-believable). The real Byron is yet to say anything at all. Chris Martin has, though, offering something of a statement on Byron's behalf.
'Holy shit', he said to the crowd. 'I hope we didn't do something bad.'