Chris Martin of Coldplay performs at Allegiant Stadium, June 6, 2025, in Las Vegas. | Ethan Miller/Getty
By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune
If only the couple caught canoodling Wednesday night on the Jumbotron at the Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts, had simply done what everyone else does in those moments at the arena or the ballpark: Thrown their hands in the air, cheered, hooped and hollered.
Then they likely would have escaped attention afterward, and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin would not have said from the stage, “Oh, look at these two! Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
Hungry people would not then have uploaded the image of the couple to TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, and all the other unfettered, unedited sites that traffic in human misery. Internet sleuths with the aid of artificial intelligence and LinkedIn would not have figured out the identity of the couple and quickly discovered that it was (married) Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot, the head of that tech company’s human resources department.
Page Six would not have felt the need to investigate Byron’s work history and Byron’s wife, whose professional life and number of children is now a subject of interest to the Hindustan Times, for God’s sake, would not have had to remove the surname Byron from her Facebook page because she was being hounded and doxed.
But they did not do that. They did the opposite. Cabot, clearly mortified, turned and hid her face, and Byron sunk out of the frame like the guilty party in a lineup of potential perps.
And how did most people react to this horrific, humiliating, unanticipated, life-changing sequence of events for at least three people, not to mention their colleagues and their families?
Simple schadenfreude.
In essence: Serves them right for going together to that Coldplay concert and cuddling.
When did America get this cruel?
Read more here.
Editorial note: Horseshit. Decades ago, the use of the acronym, “PDA,” became commonplace. Most people with common sense recognized the meaning and possible ramifications if it’s practiced.
Related: “Tech company CEO resigns after controversy over video captured at Coldplay concert”
