How 4 tech CEOs navigated relationship scandals: ‘Roll this log over, and see what crawls out’

In 2019, the National Enquirer published a series of text messages detailing Jeff Bezos’s relationship with former TV host Lauren Sánchez. The report showed Bezos sent the texts while still married to MacKenzie Scott.

Bezos dealt with the situation by going direct.

In a lengthy post on Medium, Bezos accused the publication’s parent company of “extortion and blackmail” and published emails in which the company threatened to release intimate photos of the Amazon founder if he didn’t agree to say that their reporting wasn’t politically motivated.

“I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out,” Bezos wrote.

American Media Inc., the company that owned the Enquirer, has said that it acted lawfully.

Amazon itself never became a protagonist in the fight, and Bezos remained CEO for roughly two more years. Still, the episode ignited broader conversations over privacy, tabloid media, and Bezos’s split with Scott.

Scott and Bezos filed for divorce in 2019 after a “long period of loving exploration and trial separation,” per a joint statement. Bezos married Sánchez in 2025.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a Microsoft employee told the company in 2019 that she once had an extramarital relationship with former CEO Bill Gates that started around 2000.

That story — and the company’s response — were notable for their timelines. While Gates remained on Microsoft’s board, he had stepped down as the company’s CEO in January 2000.

Microsoft hired an outside counsel to investigate the claims, the Journal reported in 2021, the same year that Gates and Melinda French Gates were divorcing.

Microsoft’s board governance committee received a confidential briefing on the investigation that November. Four months later, Gates left the board.

Representatives for Gates said at the time that the affair had ended amicably and denied that his move off the board was tied to the investigation.

In July 2025, Astronomer, a software and data management company, suddenly found itself in the middle of a high-profile scandal.

Its CEO, Andy Byron, and its chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, went viral after their embrace during a Coldplay concert was projected onto big screens during a “kiss cam” segment.

Before the concert, Byron, Cabot, and Astronomer were not household names. Videos of their cuddle went viral on TikTok, inspiring several days’ worth of headlines.

The company’s board opened a formal investigation into their relationship — and Astronomer found itself debunking viral statements falsely attributed to Byron. These included a fake statement that ended on Coldplay’s own lyrics: “Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you.”

The CEO resigned a few days later, and Pete DeJoy, the company’s cofounder, was appointed to the position on an interim basis.

“As stated previously, Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding,” the company posted on LinkedIn. “Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.”

Intel’s former CEO, Brian Krzanich, resigned in 2018 after outside counsel investigated his relationship with another employee.

In a press release at the time, the company said Krzanich had a “past consensual relationship with an Intel employee” that violated the tech company’s non-fraternization policy, which applied to all managers.

Krzanich resigned as CEO and from the Intel board. The company’s then CFO, Bob Swan, took over as interim CEO.

Intel’s story is perhaps the most cut-and-dried example of how a company can respond to a relationship scandal.