The Astronomer HR exec allegedly caught canoodling with CEO Andy Byron at a Coldplay concert last week appears to still have her job — even after Byron was forced to swiftly resign over the scandal.
Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot is on leave, but hasn’t been publicly given the boot over liability concerns, legal experts said — and it’s not so easy to dump employees just because of “ugly” headlines.
Cabot’s fate at the New York-based data science company is still murky — though employment lawyers also threw cold water on any possible sexual harassment case or similar claims.
“In a real-world big company, you can’t just fire someone because the headlines are ugly,” said attorney Nicole Brenecki.
“There are likely contracts, internal investigations, and legal issues involved.
“If HR greenlit what happened with Coldplay, and there is a supporting paper trail, heads will likely roll. It just might take a few more days before the axe drops.”
Cabot, who took the job in November 2024 became one half of a viral public scandal when she and Byron were called out by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin on the jumbotron at the show at Gillette Stadium outside Boston.
Astronomer later publicly confirmed an investigation into the incident is underway.
Both Byron and Cabot appear to be married to other people, according to social media posts — adding a layer to the scandal.
An email to Astronomer seeking comment on Cabot’s job status was not returned Monday, though the new interim CEO weighed in on the scandal online.
Here is the latest on the CEO caught cheating on a Coldplay concert jumbotron
Pete DeJoy, the company’s co-founder, said in a LinkedIn post the immense attention “has been unusual and surreal for Astronomer workers.
“While I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name,” DeJoy said.
“The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies – let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world – ever encounter,” he added.
Another employment attorney, William Cafaro, suggested that booting Cabot would be easy, but he suspects the company and her might be wrangling over an exit deal.
“Like if you were to look for a picture of ’cause’ [for firing] in the dictionary, it would show a picture of the head of HR having a public affair with the CEO of the company,” he told The Post.
He added that it’s “difficult to conceive” how she could continue in her current role.
Attorney Douglas Wigdor theorized there could be more details about the relationship that the public isn’t privy to. He said that could be a factor in why Cabot has not publicly left the company.
Additionally, the results of the internal probe could determine what the company ultimately does with Cabot, Wigdor added.
“Maybe there’s more to the story from her,” the founding partner of Wigdor LLP said. “That’s definitely possible about how it came to be that they’re at this concert and they’re embracing. It’s a short video so it’s hard to know what exactly is going on.”
Legal experts also doubted she could bring forward a claim of sexual harassment, even though Byron was her superior.
“Unless she was pressured into the relationship because of a power imbalance, there’s not much of a case,” Brenecki said.
“If it was consensual… a sexual harassment suit would be a stretch. In fact, a jury might laugh it out of court. Being embarrassed on a jumbotron isn’t the same as being harassed at work.”
Wigdor echoed that sentiment – though he again cautioned it was based on limited information.
“She’d have to demonstrate their relationship was unwanted and I think based off what I’ve seen would be difficult,” he said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
