The affair scandal where now former CEO Andy Byron and his HR exec Kristin Cabot were seen in arms at a Coldplay concert a few weeks ago has resulted in a lot of attention towards the pair’s company.
In case you missed it
If you don’t already know, a video of the jumbotron at a Coldplay concert went viral when the camera found the former Astronomer CEO and his HR rep canoodling right before they scrambled to get out of shot.
At the time, the band’s frontman Chris Martin said to the crowd, “Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy.”
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The video went viral
The clip, which was posted on TikTok by a concertgoer, went viral across the internet, with people finding out who the pair were, as well as revealing the information that Andy Byron is actually a married man with kids.
The two have since resigned
Byron and Cabot have since resigned from their positions at Astronomer, with the former’s resignation being announced by the tech company itself.
As you can imagine, the moment put Astronomer in the spotlight, but they seem to have figured out how to handle it.
They posted an unexpected celebrity
Almost two weeks after the ordeal, the company has now posted a video showing a surprising celebrity whom they’ve hired on a ‘very temporary basis’ to speak on behalf of Astronomer.
The video, which was posted on the company’s social media accounts, had the caption, “Thank you for your interest in Astronomer.”
It featured Gwyneth Paltrow
http://gty.im/89517319The company had brought none other than Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin’s ex-wife, to comment on the ordeal. She and Martin were married from 2003 to 2016.
In the video, she appears sat at a desk, wearing business attire, and talking to the camera.
She gave a short but sweet announcement
“I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300+ employees at Astronomer,” Paltrow said, before pointing out that the company had received ‘a lot of questions over the last few days’.
She answered the most common ones
After saying she’d be answering the most common questions, they started with, “OMG! What the actual f—?” before the video cut off to her.
She then hilariously answered in a soothing tone, “Yes. Astronomer is the best place to run pache Airflow, unifying the experience of running data, ML and AI pipelines at scale. We’ve been thrilled so many people have a new found interest in data workflow automation.”
The second question was about the team
The second question was, “How is your social media team holding…” which was also cut off by Paltrow who said, “Yes! There is still room available at our Beyond Analytics event in September.”
“We will now be returning to what we do best, which is delivering game-changing results for our customers. Thank you for your interest in Astronomer,” she concluded.
People were impressed by the post
Lots of people were impressed by the company’s ability to address the situation while turning it into promotion for itself.
One person on X wrote, “You got Chris Martin’s ex wife???!!! Savage.” Another also said, “You hired the Coldplay singer’s ex-wife. Extraordinary.”
People felt it was a good crisis response
“Guys this is a PR masterclass. You take the most viral moment of July 2025 and, instead of disaster control, make light of the situation and create the ultimate brand awareness,” a third person wrote.
Another echoed the sentiment, writing, “One of the best crisis responses I’ve ever seen in my life.”
