Whoopi Goldberg sparked controversy after defending former Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, who was caught wrapping his arms around one of his subordinates at a Coldplay concert.
In case you missed it, Andy, who is married, appeared on the jumbotron with the company's HR chief, Kristin Cabot, at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts on Tuesday (July 15).
Highlights
- Whoopi Goldberg defended CEO Andy Byron's alleged affair, saying "sometimes you just can’t help it."
- Andy Byron, married and CEO of billion-dollar Astronomer, resigned after being caught on the Kiss Cam with HR chief Kristin Cabot.
- Co-host Sara Haines criticized the power imbalance, noting a CEO should never date one of his subordinates.
Their evasive and panicked reactions led to hundreds of memes and became a Hot Topic on Monday's episode of The View, where the Ghost actress is a co-host.
"Sometimes you can't help who you want to get on," Whoopi began. "Sometimes you just can't help it. Because she's not the head of HR in the bed."
Image credits: The View
The 69-year-old suggested that the co-workers, whether consciously or not, wanted to get caught so they could finally live their relationship out in the open.
"I don't know what this is. I don't know if he was happily married, if she was happily married. I don't know any of that," she continued.
"But I do know that if you don't want people to know what you're doing, don't take them to concerts.
"You got inadvertently what you might've been looking for, which was your out."
The co-host of The View said that "you can't help who you want to get on"
Image credits: The View
"There are people that are looking at these two individuals and obviously not wanting the damning part for the family," she said.
"I do say my heart goes out to the children and partners of these people who are having to watch this all play out, but the bigger thing people aren't talking about is how a CEO of a company should never be dating the head of HR."
Image credits: Astronomer
Several users agreed with Sara and criticized Whoopi's take as immoral. One of them wrote on X, "Whoopi is a mess. The CEO shouldn't be sleeping with the head of HR."
Another said, "Whoopi has a wobbly moral compass. 1) It's not OK to cheat on your spouse. 2) It's not OK for a CEO to cheat with a subordinate."
"How about not cheating in the first place?" commented a third.
Andy Byron, who is married to Megan Kerrigan, was caught getting cozy with Astronomer's HR chief Kristin Cabot at a Coldplay concert
Image credits: Megan Kerrigan/Facebook
Astronomer, a billion-dollar data science company based in New York, announced Andy Byron's resignation following the scandal.
"As stated previously, 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, and recently, that standard was not met," the statement read.
"Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted.
"While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not. We're continuing to do what we do best: helping our customers with their toughest data and AI problems."
Image credits: Maud Cabot/Facebook
Pete shared in a LinkedIn post that 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."
Whoopi suggested that the two wanted to get caught, calling the idea to go to the concert "too dumb"
Image credits: Library of Congress Life
After the clip from the show circulated online, internet sleuths identified the embarrassed pair as Andy and Kristin and discovered that Andy is married to another woman, Megan Kerrigan, with whom he shares two children.
The woman reportedly removed her married surname from her social media pages before deleting the accounts as her posts became flooded with comments about Andy's alleged affair.
Kristin Cabot, who covered her face with her hands and turned around when the camera panned to her canoodling with her boss, has been placed on leave.
Her relationship status is unclear, with some reports indicating she is divorced— her divorce was finalized in 2022—and others suggesting she is in a relationship with another CEO.
It's not clear whether the two were in a relationship at the time of the scandal, but they bought a home in New Hampshire together five months ago, as per The Post.
In the first show since the viral moment, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin gave concertgoers a friendly warning that they might appear on the jumbotron.
"We'd like to say hello to some of you in the crowd," the singer said on stage at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. "How we're going to do that is we're going to use our cameras and put some of you on the big screen."
The Fix You singer went on to joke, "So, please, if you haven't done your makeup, do your makeup now."
The actress' comments sparked discussions about the alleged affair on social media
