All over the place I’ve been seeing the same video pop up—a man with his supposed mistress getting caught in the worst way possible. I really didn’t think much of it at first, and I’m betting most of you didn’t care either. But leave it to providers to spin this into a reminder about the power of having a good provider by your side.
The video itself is pretty short. A man is with a woman at a Coldplay concert. They’re hugged up, enjoying themselves, when the camera pans over to them. In an instant, the man drops to the floor while the woman hides her face. Clearly, they didn’t want to be seen. On its own, the clip is harmless—but once you get some context, the whole situation takes on a different weight.
No one could have guessed that the kiss cam would catch Andy Byron, CEO of Astronomer, with the company’s head of human resources, Kristin Cobalt. It’s almost too ironic. Within hours of this blowing up, Byron lost his family, his job, and a chunk of his money. Now, some providers are saying that Byron played this all wrong—that if he had hired a professional, none of this would’ve happened. I say, it still would have happened, and maybe it would’ve been even worse.
We see this sort of thing every day. Providers are constantly out at high-end events—sports games, concerts, luxury vacations—living it up in public spaces. I can’t fault them for it; anyone would take that opportunity if they could. But to say that a provider would have handled this situation any better just doesn’t make much sense. When you’re in the moment, enjoying yourself, the last thing you’re thinking about is ending up on the jumbo screen.
Now, imagine what would’ve happened if Byron had been there with a high-end provider. He’s already set to lose somewhere between $20 and $70 million in his divorce, according to the New York Post. If he was with a drop-dead gorgeous provider who looked better than Kristin Cobalt, his now ex-wife would have burned everything to the ground out of pure spite.
As good as a provider might be, they can’t account for everything. At the end of the day, this all came down to Byron being too cocky, assuming that being in a private box meant no one would see him. A provider might be good—but they aren’t that good.
