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Kristin Cabot, whose liaison with her boss at a Coldplay concert this summer went viral and cost both of them their jobs, has made her first public statement. In a profile in the “New York Times” she describes, how she lives with the consequences of public shaming. “I was so ashamed and so horrified,” she said. “I’m the head of HR and he’s the CEO. It’s just so cliche and so bad.” But as she explained, the fallout became significantly worse after public exposure led to doxxing. With 500 to 600 calls per day and an estimated 50 to 60 death threats.
Cabot, 53, emphasized in the article that she had no relationship with her boss, former Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, before the concert and that the first kiss between them was the very one that was shown on the Jumbotron screen at Gillette Stadium. “I made a bad decision, drank a few high noons and danced with my boss and behaved inappropriately,” she said.
“And that’s not nothing. I took responsibility and gave up my career for it. That’s the price I chose. I want my children to know that you can make mistakes and really mess up. But you shouldn’t be threatened with death for it.”
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Beginning of the story and the evening of the concert
She also shared her perspective, explaining that she started at Astronomer in November 2024 and bonded with Byron over their shared separations from their spouses. When she felt a spark, she invited him and friends to a Coldplay concert. “I thought, ‘I’ve got this under control. And I can have a crush. I can handle it,'” she told the Times. On the way there, she learned that her husband, also named Andrew, would be in the audience. Still, she said, she embraced the moment and pulled Byron’s arms around her for a kiss just as the camera caught them.
When they realized they were on screen and immediately recoiled, Coldplay singer Chris Martin commented: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just really shy.” Cabot told the Times that she and Byron ran to the bar in shame. “We were both just sitting there with our heads in our hands, like, ‘What just happened?'” she recalled, adding that her first impulse was to inform Astronomer’s board of directors about the incident. After receiving a TikTok of the kiss at 4 a.m., she drove to Boston the next day to see her husband and tell her children what happened.
Resignation, public pressure and criticism
Byron resigned from his post a few days after the concert. After Astronomer’s board investigated the incident, Cabot was offered to keep her job, but she instead chose to resign herself later in July. She tried to retreat to self-medicate, but the public shaming was swift and severe. As people commented on her daily routines, she began to fear for her safety and that of her children. But she told the Times she wants to take responsibility for her actions and hopes people understand and respect her privacy.
Byron, Cabot’s ex-husband and representatives for Astronomer declined to comment.
The harshest critics, Cabot told the Times, were women. She was particularly disappointed by Gwyneth Paltrow, who starred in a tongue-in-cheek commercial for astronomers. Paltrow coined the term “conscious uncoupling” and built a company that supported women.
Cabot and Byron’s Jumbotron kiss became one of the most prolific memes of the year. One person commented on social media: “Shoutout to Coldplay for managing to bring the whole internet together for a day.”
After the incident, Martin made it a habit to warn the audience that they could end up on the screen during what he called the “Jumbotron Song.” “We’d like to have some of you in the audience,” he said at the concert in Madison, Wisconsin, in July, after Cabot’s viral moment. “And this is how we do it: We use our cameras and show some of you on the big screen. So please, if you haven’t put your makeup on yet, put your makeup on now.”