A MAN with the same name as “cheating” CEO Andy Byron had to “buy his wife flowers” after sleuths accused him of having an affair.
Andy Byron, 42, from Dublin, received hundreds of messages on LinkedIn from confused users who mistook him for the Astronomer boss – who was caught cuddling the company’s chief people officer Kristin Cabot on Coldplay’s kiss cam during their Boston show.
The Andy Byron in the video has been put on leave[/caption]
The viral footage has racked up tens of millions of views online after being filmed by concert goer Grace Springer, who said: “Play stupid games… win stupid prizes.”
But the father-of-two has taken the mix up in good humour, using the opportunity to promote his business, and confirmed to The Sun that he’s not the Andy in question, adding: “I’d never get caught dead at a Coldplay gig!”
Andy, who is creative director of Stylo.ie, said he’s had a “strange 24 hours” since the kiss cam footage from Coldplay’s gig went viral.
He told The Sun: “I started getting messages from the lads asking if I enjoyed the Coldplay concert – and we were having a bit of craic about it.
“Then I started getting strangers from LinkedIn messaging ‘saying you got caught out bad’ and how ashamed I should be – a lot of people on a moral high horse.
“The actual Andy took his LinkedIn page down so everyone started messaging me – it got so bad that I had to turn all my notifications off.”
Andy jokingly removed his creative director job title from his LinkedIn, replacing it with “not the Coldplay gig guy”.
The father-of-two joked about the whole situation with his wife “who I’m not cheating on”, he emphasised.
Andy added: “It made a good excuse to buy her flowers.”
And the creative director may have made his cash back already – after tuning the confusion into shameless promotion for his brand.
Jokingly addressing the matter on LinkedIn, he wrote: “No, this isn’t me. I wouldn’t be caught dead at a Coldplay concert…
“I’m the Andy Byron who makes videos for big screens, not the one who gets caught on them.
“If you want to make video content that goes viral for the right reasons, let’s connect [laughing emoji]”.
His post has almost reached 10,000 likes, and reached almost one million users on the platform.
He continued: “I had 580 connection requests, hundreds of messages and 250,000 profile views.
“It’s a coincidence that turned into great marketing for me. One guy from the US with the same name goes viral and I get a load of followers for my business. It’s a once in a lifetime thing.
“If my engagements are like this, I can’t imagine what it must be like for them, I’m sure him and the woman he’s with are going through hell.
“If they had just played it off [the kiss cam], I’m sure they would have been fine. But I do have empathy for the families involved.”
The mix up comes as Andy Byron’s company Astronomer announced an internal probe into the Coldplay kiss cam scandal.
Kristin Cabot was hired at Astronomer just a few months ago[/caption]
The pair dived for cover after flashing up on the big screen[/caption]
Byron pictured with his wife Megan Kerrigan Byron[/caption]
The company’s married boss and his alleged mistress Kristin Cabot were caught off guard when their grinning faces flashed up on a big screen in front of 55,000 people at Boston’s Gillette Stadium.
Astronomer said in an official statement that they have launched a probe into the CEO allegedly getting caught cheating with co-worker Cabot at the concert.
The company posted on LinkedIn: “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.
“The Board of Directors has initiated a formal investigation into this matter and we will have additional details to share very shortly.”
The company went on to say how no other employees were in the viral video.
Byron also hadn’t put out any statement and “reports saying otherwise are all incorrect,” the statement said.
Fake apology statements — falsely attributed to Byron and Coldplay — have flooded social media, with one viral hoax even claiming the band would introduce “camera-free audience sections for people and their sidepieces.”
One man also claimed he was fired from Astronomer for buying the Coldplay tickets that allegedly exposed the affair — though that, too, appears unverified.
Former employees were said to be “laughing their a** off” after Byron was caught canoodling with Cabot.
The incident reportedly sparked glee among Byron’s ex-staffers, a former direct report told The New York Post.
They said: “The text groups and chains of former employees are like… everybody’s laughing their a** off and enjoying the hell out of what happened and him getting exposed.”
The insider described Byron as a “sales-obsessed” executive who was allegedly “toxic” in the workplace.
