A rumor that circulated online in July 2025 claimed Astronomer ex-CEO Andy Byron was preparing documents to sue Coldplay following an embarrassing, highly publicized incident involving a concert jumbotron “kiss cam.”

Byron and the data technology company’s chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, both resigned after a video crew at Coldplay’s July 16 performance at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, displayed the pair — who are both married to other people — embracing each other during a kiss-cam segment. The band’s frontman Chris Martin commented, “Oh, look at these two.”

Upon Byron and Cabot seeing their image on the stadium’s screen, they quickly ended their embrace. Byron ducked out of view, while Cabot covered her face and turned away from the camera. Martin continued, “All right, come on. You’re ok. Oh, what? Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”

Following the incident, an Astronomer spokesperson posted a statement on the company’s official LinkedIn (archived) and X accounts (archived). That statement read, in part, “Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.”

As an example of the lawsuit rumor spreading online, on July 25, Facebook user MaximBady — an account displaying over 4.8 million followers — posted (archived), “Astronomer CEO Andy Byron is preparing documents to sue Coldplay according to Yahoo news.” The post received over 119,000 reactions, the vast majority of them laughs.

(MaximBady/Facebook)

Many users’ comments under the Facebook post, including those with thousands of likes, reflected they genuinely believed Byron was readying to sue the band, and that Yahoo News reported on the matter. Users also shared this rumor on Bluesky, Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), LinkedIn (archived), Threads (archived), TikTok (archived) and X (archived).

However, as of July 29, Snopes’ searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets credibly confirming that Byron was preparing documents to sue Coldplay. Rather, we located a mixture of articles laying out alleged legal experts’ opinions regarding if Byron had grounds to bring a lawsuit against the band. We also made note of at least one Substack blogger claiming unnamed sources confirmed Byron’s lawsuit was, in fact, in the works, as well as further stories citing that very same Substack blogger’s reporting. Yahoo.com syndicated some of the latter articles from publishers who cited the Substack blogger’s work — explaining why social media posts cited Yahoo News.

We contacted representatives for both Astronomer and Coldplay by email to ask if there was any truth to the rumor, as well as Facebook user MaximBady — whose bio displayed the words “comedy and more comedy” — to inquire about their source. We will update this article if we receive more information.

How the Coldplay lawsuit rumor began

The rumor about Byron preparing to sue Coldplay began days following the viral jumbotron incident on July 16. Online tabloids published articles, citing purported legal experts’ opinions, regarding whether Byron, should he choose to bring a case against Coldplay, could achieve a favorable outcome.

For example, on July 20, the British tabloid The Mirror reported (archived), “Lawyers weigh in on whether former Astronomer CEO could sue Coldplay after resignation.” Then, on July 22, the celebrity gossip publication Page Six posted the headline, “Ex-Astronomer CEO Andy Byron could sue Coldplay for kiss cam scandal.” Neither article reported Byron was preparing legal documents to sue Coldplay.

Nearly one hour after Page Six published their article, Substack blogger Rob Shuter, reporting on his “#ShuterScoop” blog, posted a story (archived) displaying the headline, “EXCLUSIVE: COLDPLAY HIT WITH LEGAL THREAT OVER KISS CAM AFFAIR.”

One part of Shuter’s story read, “Now, insiders tell #ShuterScoop that Byron is exploring legal action against the band and event organizers, citing ’emotional distress’ and ‘invasion of privacy.'” The article also cited “a source close to Byron as saying, ‘He didn’t consent to being filmed or publicly humiliated.’ The quote featured the word “consent,” which might remind some readers of a fake apology statement bearing Byron’s name. As we previously reported, that statement — one different from the quote in Shuter’s story — originated from a satirical X account.

In Substack private messages, we asked Shuter about the headline possibly giving the appearance to users that Byron already sent Coldplay legal documents, as well as inquired for details about the unnamed “insiders” cited in the article. In response, Shuter said, in part, “It’s my source. Coldplay are aware of the risk and ready to respond if they receive legal documents.” Regarding whether the Page Six article published an hour before may have inspired Shuter’s story, Shuter said, “No. I was annoyed with myself for not publishing first.”

Then, on July 23, the Mandatory.com and RealityTea.com blogs both published a new article — the same story — with differing headlines. The story cited Shuter’s reporting. The Mandatory.com article (archived) showed the headline, “CEO Andy Byron Looking To Sue Coldplay After Viral Kiss Cam Moment, Says ‘Source.'” Meanwhile, the RealityTea.com story (archived) displayed, “Coldplay Could Be in Trouble as CEO Considers Legal Action After Kiss Cam Moment, Says ‘Source.'” Yahoo syndicated both articles, providing the final piece of the puzzle as to why online posts began citing Yahoo News around the same time.

We will update this story if we learn any further details involving the possibility of legal action involving the kiss-cam incident.

For further reading, we reported about a false rumor claiming “The Simpsons” predicted the kiss-cam incident involving Byron, Cabot and Coldplay.

Sources:

About Astronomer. https://www.astronomer.io/about-us/.

“Alleged Affair Discovered in Viral Video of Chris Martin Calling out Couple during Coldplay Concert.” YouTube, Page Six, 17 Jul. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-xmWG3zcJo.

Deang, Shyna Mae. “Kristin Cabot’s Husband Comes from One of Boston’s Wealthiest Families with a Fortune Spanning Over 100 Years.” International Business Times UK, 21 Jul. 2025, https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/kristin-cabots-husband-comes-one-bostons-wealthiest-families-fortune-spanning-over-100-years-1738878.

Esposito, Joey. “Astronomer CEO Issued This Statement after Coldplay Concert Incident?” Snopes, 18 Jul. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/astronomer-ceo-statement-coldplay/.

—. “Did ‘The Simpsons’ Predict Coldplay Kiss Cam Scandal?” Snopes, 21 Jul. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/kiss-cam-coldplay-the-simpsons/.

Hasan, Sadiba. “‘Coldplaygate’ Is a Stark Reminder That Cameras Are Everywhere.” The New York Times, 18 Jul. 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/style/coldplay-andy-byron-astronomer-video.html.

Hayes, Christal. “Female Exec Captured in Viral Coldplay Concert Clip Resigns.” BBC, 24 Jul. 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3l3ldd0j1o.

Picchi, Aimee. “Astronomer CEO Andy Byron Resigns after Coldplay Kiss-Cam Video.” CBS News, 24 Jul. 2025, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/andy-byron-astronomer-board-investigation-coldplay-kiss-cam-video/.

Veiga, Alex. “Tech Company CEO Resigns after Controversy over Video Captured at Coldplay Concert.” The Associated Press, 19 Jul. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/astronomer-jumbotron-coldplay-couple-privacy-cce340c60335a640985d6b9fa7145c54.