Woman in Coldplay kiss cam breaks silence: 'I made a bad decision'
Kristin Cabot, who went viral earlier this year for appearing in Coldplay’s kiss cam with her former boss Andy Byron, has spoken out on the issue.
In her first interview since the incident, Cabot, 53, told the New York Times that in the months since the concert, she was doxxed, followed by paparazzi, and harassed by strangers in public. She also received death threats: “My kids were afraid that I was going to die and they were going to die.”
Cabot, previously the Chief People Officer of data company Astronomer, clarified that she was not in a sexual relationship with Byron, the company’s CEO. They kissed for the first and only time that evening. “I made a bad decision and had a couple of High Noons [vodka seltzers] and danced and acted inappropriately with my boss. And it’s not nothing. I took accountability, and I gave up my career for that. That’s the price I chose to pay,” she said.
“I want my kids to know that you can make mistakes, and you can really screw up. But you don’t have to be threatened to be killed for them.”
When the pair attended the concert in July with Cabot’s friends, Cabot had already been separated from her ex-husband Andrew Cabot for a few weeks. They officially divorced in August, with Andrew releasing a statement in September. As per his spokesperson, “Their decision to divorce was already underway prior to that evening.”
Byron was aware that Cabot was separating from her husband, and he told her he was “going through the same thing.” This, according to Cabot, “sort of strengthened our connection.” When her friends invited her to go to the Coldplay concert, she asked Byron to be her plus-one.
On the way to the stadium, Cabot found out through text that Andrew was also attending. When she appeared on the jumbotron with her boss, Cabot said she had two thoughts: She did not want to humiliate Andrew, and that she was “so embarrassed and so horrified.” She added, “I’m the head of HR and he’s the CEO. It’s, like, so cliché and so bad.”
Cabot resigned from her post as Chief People Officer after a few days. While Astronomer offered that she stay after concluding its internal investigation, she refused. “I was the most maligned HR manager in HR history," she said in a separate interview with the Times.
She had also been told that she is “unemployable,” and some trusted colleagues, friends, and relatives cut off contact. Her interactions with Byron, who also resigned in July, have since been “minimal.”
The original TikTok video of the incident received 100 million views in days. When the pair hid from the cameras, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin joked, “Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy.” Celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg have parodied it, and Astronomer hired Gwyneth Paltrow, who was married to Martin from 2003 to 2016, for a skit referencing the video.