logo
Tech company boss quits after controversy over Coldplay concert video

Tech company boss quits after controversy over Coldplay concert video

BreakingNews.ie2 days ago
A tech company boss has resigned after controversy over a video captured on the big screen at a Coldplay concert.
Andy Byron resigned from his job as CEO of Astronomer, according to a statement posted on LinkedIn by the company on Saturday.
Advertisement
'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 company said.
The move comes a day after the company said that Mr Byron had been placed on leave and the board of directors had launched a formal investigation into the incident, which went viral.
A short video clip from Coldplay's concert on Wednesday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, showed a man and a woman cuddling and smiling, his arms wrapped around her, as she leaned back into him.
Advertisement
When they saw themselves on the big screen, her jaw dropped, her hands flew to her face and she spun away from the camera. He ducked out of the frame, as did she.
Lead singer Chris Martin had asked the cameras to scan the crowd for his Jumbotron Song, when he sings a few lines about the people the camera lands on.
'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy,' he joked.
Internet sleuths identified the man as the chief executive officer of a US-based company and the woman as its chief people officer.
Advertisement
Pete DeJoy, Astronomer's co-founder and chief product officer, has been tapped as interim CEO while the company conducts a search for Mr Byron's successor.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Woman behind viral Coldplay ‘kiss cam' moment speaks out
Woman behind viral Coldplay ‘kiss cam' moment speaks out

The Independent

time5 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Woman behind viral Coldplay ‘kiss cam' moment speaks out

The woman who filmed the infamous Coldplay 'kiss cam' incident does not regret uploading the clip to social media. Grace Springer posted video of married tech company CEO Andy Byron being caught on a stadium screen embracing a work colleague to TikTok on Friday (18 July), where it went on amass over 122 million views. Appearing on ITV 's This Morning, Springer admitted she felt bad for Byron's wife, but suggested footage of the incident was always likely to surface online. ' I definitely feel for Andy's wife, Megan, his family, and everyone else who's been hurt in the process,' she said. '[But] there were over 50,000 people and I'm not the only one that caught it on camera. ' So if it wasn't me who uploaded it, I'm sure someone else would've.'

Davinia Taylor shares her shock at being mistaken for the Coldplay kiss cam woman as she's forced to deny she's having an affair
Davinia Taylor shares her shock at being mistaken for the Coldplay kiss cam woman as she's forced to deny she's having an affair

Daily Mail​

time6 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Davinia Taylor shares her shock at being mistaken for the Coldplay kiss cam woman as she's forced to deny she's having an affair

Davinia Taylor has expressed her shock at being mistaken for the Coldplay kiss cam woman who was caught cosying up to her CEO boss at the band's concert. Andrew Byron, the head of the billion-dollar AI startup Astronomer, was broadcast on the big screen at Boston's Gillette Stadium with his arm around the company's HR chief Kristin Cabot during Coldplay 's gig there Tuesday night. They rapidly covered their faces, with Byron diving out of view and Cabot turning her back to the camera, but their reaction caught the attention of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who joked: ' Either they're having an affair, or they're just very shy.' And amid the clip instantly viral, Davinia has been forced to deny she's having an affair as she told of being compared to the cheating woman by a work colleague. Taking to Instagram on Sunday, the actress, 47, recounted to her followers that a colleague had said that her pals had asked 'is that Davinia having an affair?' in their WhatsApp group chat. Quickly jumping to her own defence, Davinia exclaimed: 'Absolutely not', before listing the reasons why she wouldn't have had a dalliance with the sneaky tech executive. The former Hollyoaks star, who is happily in a relationship with Matthew Leyden, firstly noted that she wouldn't have 'time to go' to the Coldplay gig before sharing insisting that she's never go with a tech executive. She remarked: 'I'm very happy with my hands on builder.' She also told how she never wears her hair down as she expressed her confusion at being mistaken for the HR chief. Davinia then went on to share a poll that she conducted, revealing that over 20% of her fans believed she looked like the kiss cam woman. Meanwhile, her followers took to the comments with many admitting that they did mistake the kiss cam woman for her upon first glance. They penned: 'Yessssss - I've been waiting for someone to say this - I thought you looked a like as soon as I saw the video.' 'So funny the thought crossed my mind too I had to zoom in to check.' 'At first glance yes! Bet they both wish they'd had some Willpowder now though.' Meanwhile, her followers took to the comments with many admitting that they did mistake the kiss cam woman for her upon first glance 'This is so funny though because I did a double take. Think it's the twinkly eyes.' 'I've got to say at first glance I thought so too! But then I realised.' 'I defo thought it was you at first glimpse!!! I thought: no way is she cheating on her fit hubby with THAT.' Amid the shocking clip going viral, Byron was placed on leave this Friday before the company announced his resignation on Saturday. Public records suggest both Byron, 50, and Cabot, 56, are married - but that they live at different addresses to each of their spouses' registered abodes. Astronomer recently issued a statement announcing that Byron had resigned from the billion-dollar company. '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.' Astronomer announced the CEO's resignation on Saturday following an internal investigation that put Byron and Cabot on leave on Friday Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy will stay on as interim CEO. '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.' Speculation of the suspected affair became the talk of the internet, and Daily Mail confirmed that Cabot is in fact currently married to another CEO. Massachusetts property documents dated in January confirmed that Cabot is currently married to Andrew Cabot, the chief executive of Privateer Rum, a Massachusetts-based booze maker. It is unclear exactly when the pair tied the knot, but the documents confirm that Cabot, whose maiden name is Stanek, was married at the time of selling a $1.8m property in Watertown, Mass, earlier this year. Privateer Rum's website lists Andrew Cabot as its CEO and COO of the company, and public documents show that he has been married at least twice before, in 1993 and 2014. 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.

EXCLUSIVE Transgender woman who grew up in strict Catholic household now makes millions selling racy snaps
EXCLUSIVE Transgender woman who grew up in strict Catholic household now makes millions selling racy snaps

Daily Mail​

time6 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

EXCLUSIVE Transgender woman who grew up in strict Catholic household now makes millions selling racy snaps

A transgender woman who spent years hiding her sexuality while living in a strict Catholic household has revealed she now makes over $1 million a year selling racy snaps of herself after being shunned by the church. Lana Madison, who was born male, was raised in an extremely conservative community in southern Texas. From a young age she was into 'feminine' things, but she was forced to 'pretend to be masculine' out of fear of how the people at her church would react. 'Growing up Catholic was tough. I was so feminine but constantly at odds with who I was,' she explained exclusively to the Daily Mail. 'It was hard pretending to be masculine while everything inside me screamed the opposite.' Lana recalled 'faking asthma attacks' to get out of Mass when the priest would 'start preaching anti-gay rhetoric.' But as Lana got older, she said she couldn't hold in her true self anymore. Eventually, word began to spread that she 'was into boys,' and it led to the community turning on both her and her family. 'I managed to disguise myself for a while until I couldn't anymore,' she continued. 'Once people found out I was into boys, my friends dropped me. 'But that rejection weirdly gave me freedom. I no longer had to pretend. I leaned into being an openly effeminate guy, and eventually, that led me toward my truth.' While her parents were certainly shocked at first, they ultimately came around. 'My parents may be Catholic and conservative, but they've always loved me unconditionally,' she explained. 'When I came out, it wasn't easy for [my parents]. They didn't embrace everything right away, but they never made me feel unloved. 'Even as they were being shunned by people in their community, they told others and me that they'd rather have a relationship with their child than a dead child. 'That kind of love gave me strength. They didn't always get everything right, and it took time for them to adjust to my name and pronouns. 'But I knew they loved me, and that gave me the confidence to stand tall in who I was becoming.' Eventually, word began to spread that she 'was into boys,' and it lead to the whole community turning on both her and her family Lana realized that she was transgender while she was in college when a drag queen friend put her in full glam for the first time and she started undergoing hormone therapy at age 21 Lana realized that she was transgender while she was in college when a drag queen friend put her in full glam for the first time and she started undergoing hormone therapy at age 21. During her transition, Lana realized that to become the girl she truly dreamed of being she would have to go under the knife multiple times because there were so many things about her appearance that she wanted to change. So instead of going through recovery over and over again, she decided to do it all at once - undergoing a whopping 15 procedures during one marathon 10-hour surgery. This included having her hairline pulled down, fat grafting to her cheeks, shaving down her Adam's apple, getting buccal fat pads partially removed, a rhinoplasty, brow lift, breast augmentation, and other tweaks to her lips and forehead. 'I wanted to go under and wake up as a new person,' she explained. 'I didn't want to spend years in and out of recovery, nitpicking parts of myself, constantly planning the next procedure. I wanted to just be done and move forward in my life. 'I didn't want to heal one part of myself while still dealing with dysphoria about another. I wanted to wake up in a body that felt whole.' She looks at the transformation as a 'rebirth' and said she feels like it has given her a 'second chance at life.' Her conservative parents are not exactly fond of her career choice, but they just want her to be happy. She dished, 'They might not understand every part of it, but they understand me' And now, Lana - who went on to get a hair transplant and two more boob jobs - claimed she earns over $1 million a year by selling sultry snaps online and has raked in more than 76,000 followers on Instagram. Her conservative parents are not exactly fond of her career choice, but they just want her to be happy. 'My parents might have preferred I choose a different career path. But they see how much freedom I have,' Lana dished. 'I get to set my own schedule, I'm not risking my safety working some soul-crushing job for someone else, and I'm thriving doing something that actually pays. 'They might not understand every part of it, but they understand me. They know I'm empowered, independent, and exactly where I'm supposed to be.' In the end, she's said she's immensely proud of herself for overcoming everything she's endured.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store