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.
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.
