Kristin Cabot, who was caught hugging a married IT CEO at a Coldplay concert, comments for the first time

Video screenshot

In July, at a Coldplay concert in Boston, a camera accidentally captured Andy Byron, CEO of IT company Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, head of HR, embracing. The video was shown on the stadium's big screens during a song as part of the traditional kiss cam moment.

Kristin Cabot gave her first interview since that moment.

She told The New York Times that she was inundated with hate — in comments, she was called a slut, a home-wrecker, and a gold digger.

Her personal data was leaked online, and for several weeks she received 500-600 calls a day. Paparazzi waited across the street from her house, and cars slowly drove by, "like a parade," she recalled.

As a result, Cabot hired a communications consultant to help tell her story while minimizing further harm to herself and her loved ones.

She says that they had never even kissed before that night.

"I made a bad decision, had a couple of High Noon cocktails, danced, and behaved inappropriately with my boss. And it's not a minor thing. I took responsibility and sacrificed my career for it. That's the price I chose to pay,"

— she said. — "I want my kids to know: it's okay to make mistakes, it's okay to seriously screw up. But you shouldn't be threatened with death for it."

In the spring of 2025, during lunch with her boss, Cabot specifically mentioned her marriage, and Byron asked what happened. She replied that she was going through a separation.

"I'm going through the same thing," she recalled his words. After that, they became closer.

At work, they shared secrets, made each other laugh, and Cabot quickly developed "big feelings."

Cabot's separation from her husband was still very fresh when she agreed to go to Coldplay with friends. She liked the band, but most of all, she was attracted by the opportunity to get out with friends on a summer Wednesday. She invited Byron to join her.

Was she not concerned about this outing from an HR ethics perspective? "Maybe some part of my brain was jumping up and waving its arms, yelling, 'Don't do it!'" Cabot replied. — "But overall, no." She was excited to introduce Byron to her friends. "I thought: I can handle this, I can fall in love, I'm in control." On the way to the stadium, Cabot learned via text that her divorcing husband was also going to the concert. "That threw me off," she admitted. But she and Byron "were not a couple."

Their seats were on a VIP balcony with a superb view of the stage. Cabot remembers that it was dark around them and it seemed like no one could see them. She and Byron had a couple of tequila cocktails, and as the concert progressed, they began to look like a couple. She emphasized that they kissed for the first and only time that night. Byron was dancing behind Cabot when she took his hands and wrapped them around herself.

When Cabot saw her and his photo on the stadium's giant screen, it was as if "someone flipped a switch."

"I was so ashamed and so scared," she said. — "I'm the head of HR, he's the CEO. It's so cliché and so bad." They fled to the bar. "We just sat there, clutching our heads: what just happened?" Even before leaving the stadium, they began discussing how to react. "The first conversation was about informing the board of directors."

Cabot has an apartment in Boston where she lives when her children are with her. She and Byron went there to develop a plan. Who would write the letter? What would it say? Who would send it? "Panic attacks started," Cabot says. She already saw herself losing her job and complications in her relationship with her husband, whom the children adored.

And then, around four in the morning, Cabot received a message. It was a TikTok screenshot.

She went to her children, who were with their father in Boston. She wanted to talk to them before they heard it from others. "They knew who Andy was, and I said, 'We got carried away in the moment, and now it's on social media.'" Her 14-year-old daughter burst into tears.

Then she returned to the apartment for a conference call with Astronomer's board of directors. In that conversation, she was told: "Listen, we're human. We all make mistakes. But you understand that we must discuss this and make a decision," she recalls. Soon after, the company began an investigation.

Cabot installed surveillance cameras at home, and local police increased patrols. After the investigation at Astronomer concluded, she was offered to return to her position, she says. But she couldn't imagine managing HR while being the object of universal ridicule. She arranged for her dismissal, which was announced on July 24.

Cabot changed beyond recognition for her family and friends. "Such darkness has fallen since then," her mother said. For many days she did not leave her room. Cabot said she only felt safe at home. She recalled an instance when she and her daughter went to the city pool, and a woman she barely knew started photographing them. Her daughter, with tears in her eyes, began to plead: "Mom, please, let's go." Another time, when she was picking up her son from work, a group of women approached the car and, referring to her as "that girl," said they didn't understand how she could even show herself in public. "I didn't know how to properly support my children," she said.

By the end of summer, it got a little easier. Cabot filed for divorce from Andrew, who released a statement that they were no longer living together at the time of the concert, and asked not to be bothered. She found therapists for her children, who returned to school, where they were treated with understanding. Cabot began leaving the house to play tennis.

She and Byron stayed in touch all summer. But in early September, they met and decided that "communication was only preventing each of them from moving on and healing." Since then, contact has been minimal.

Cabot wants to refute rumors that she got a top position through a relationship. She has been working since she was 13, having decided that she never wanted to be financially dependent on a man. When she divorced her first husband in 2018, she fully supported her family herself. "I've never been prouder of anything in my life," she says.

Cabot noted that her harshest critics were women. "What I saw makes me think that it's not just men holding us back. We're holding ourselves back by destroying each other."

• 5
• 0
• 3
• 1
• 0
• 5
• 0
• 0