July 26, 2025: Andy Byron, the former CEO of Astronomer, is thinking about suing Coldplay and the people who put up the show after a “kiss cam” moment went viral. Byron is thinking of suing because of “emotional distress” and “invasion of privacy” after the event had a big effect on both his personal and professional life.
Andy Byron, the former CEO of Ex-Astronomer, is said to be thinking of suing Coldplay over the viral kiss cam.
People who know Byron say he “didn’t agree to being filmed or humiliated in public” and thinks “Coldplay made him a meme.” Camron Dowlatshahi, a lawyer with MSD Lawyers, told Page Six that a probable action may be for defamation, especially because Chris Martin said on stage, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.” But Dowlatshahi said that for Byron’s defamation claim to work, he would have to show “that there wasn’t an affair.”
Coldplay hasn’t said anything formal about the possible lawsuit, but Rob Shuter’s ShuterScoop says that Chris Martin “laughed out loud” at the thought of being sued for a kiss cam moment.
Many lawyers think that this type of case is a “long shot.” One lawyer told Page Six, “You have almost no right to privacy at a concert with cameras and 70,000 people.” It seems like he’s attempting to put the responsibility on someone else. Experts say that people who go to public events usually have a lower expectation of privacy, and tickets to events typically carry stipulations that say they agree to being filmed.
The fight started on July 16, 2025, at a Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium. The “kiss cam” showed Byron and Kristin Cabot, the Chief People Officer of Astronomer, hugging. Their clearly uncomfortable reaction and later attempt to hide from the camera, along with Chris Martin’s funny comment, quickly went viral.
After the news broke, there was a huge response online, and both Byron and Cabot left their jobs at Astronomer on July 19 and July 24, respectively, after an internal investigation.