Coldplay, infidelity and kiss cam: a few seconds of video that rocks a CEO's life

The case is embarrassing. Not only for Andy Byron, CEO of the New York startup Astronomer, but also for the internet, which once again finds itself crossing many lines... over a few suspicions and a handful of seconds of video.

The clip dates back to Wednesday, July 16. The band Coldplay , in concert in Boston (United States), teases its audience with its kiss cam . For the anti-kitsch crowd, let's remember the principle: if the camera is on you and your other half, you're supposed to kiss. Problem: that evening, the reaction of a couple is surprising.

Initially tenderly embracing, a man and a woman abruptly separate when they discover they are being filmed. The man instinctively crouches down. The woman immediately turns her back, burying her head in her hands. "Either they're having an affair or they're just really shy," Coldplay frontman Chris Martin is heard joking.

The blunder is made: the internet goes crazy. Instagram, TikTok, X… Very quickly, the clip floods social networks. Tens of millions of likes pile up. And the internet users, converted into detectives, investigate: the man on the screen is the head of the Astronomer company. His name is Andy Byron. And the woman in his arms isn't his wife. She's a colleague.

Is the CEO getting a divorce? Is he in an open relationship? Or polyamorous? Is he really in a relationship with his employee? The cyberspace crowd doesn't really know much about Andy Byron's private life. Quickly drawing its own conclusions, it unsheathes its vengeful blade without hesitation. In twenty-four hours, Business Insider points out , the name "Byron" was searched for more than two million times on Google.

"Aren't you ashamed of destroying a wedding?" , "The cameraman deserves a raise" ... Fierce and scathing, the derogatory comments are pouring in. Private family photos of the CEO are being reposted. Analyzed. Judged. Mocked. Other Internet users are taking the vice a step further: fake images of the supposed lovers are being generated by AI and reshared online. The harassment is such that, since the beginning of the scandal, Andy Byron and his colleague have ended up deleting their LinkedIn profiles, Libération has been able to observe.

The same goes for the CEO's wife, who has also disappeared from the radar. This is despite the public's support for her. Online, her Facebook and Instagram accounts have vanished. Just before their disappearance, the wife reportedly deleted her husband's last name, according to several American media outlets.

Will "ColdplayGate" also end up having economic consequences? Astronomer, in any case, is already suffering the fallout. Assailed by derisive remarks, the company specializing in corporate data management has since restricted access to its comments on X. On the betting site Polymarket, as Business Insider noted , more than $35,000 was even pledged to predict Andy Byron's chances of remaining CEO.

Having remained silent since then, the startup—recently valued at $775 million after a fundraising round in May—was forced on Thursday to share a denial with TMZ . The reason: a statement signed by the CEO, which triggered a new cavalcade of digital reactions. The text was… completely false.

"What was supposed to be a joyful evening turned into a profound personal mistake," the forger wrote, while pretending to apologize to his family and colleagues. "You deserve better from me, as a partner, a father, and a leader. This is not the image I want to project or the man I want to be," he continued. Ironically, the fake statement ends with lyrics from a Coldplay song. Its title: Fix you .