Kristin Cabot, 53, found herself at the centre of a global scandal after footage of her kissing her boss Andy Byron, 51, emerged online after a Coldplay concert
The woman who was caught up in the Coldplay “kiss cam” scandal has broken her silence, months after the viral 16-second clip that “ruined her life”.
The controversy began in July 2025, when a brief clip from a Coldplay show in Boston showed Cabot, then head of HR at tech company Astronomer, in the arms of her then-boss and CEO, Andy Byron, on a stadium “kiss cam”. As it happened, the band’s frontman Chris Martin quipped, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy”. As soon as the couple saw themselves on the Jumbotron, they both ducked away – but the footage exploded on social media.
What followed was a huge fallout at the company, with both the CEO and Cabot stepping down from their roles after it emerged they were married. Behind the scenes, two families were left reeling over the moment that took the internet by storm. While it appears Andy Bryron is still married to wife Megan Kerrigan, Cabot filed for divorce mere weeks after the fallout. Here, we take a look at Kristin Cabot’s troubled life now after the fall-out…
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Career shattered
In her first interview since the scandal, Cabot did not shy away from admitting her part in what happened. She said the moment was the result of having “a couple of High Noons” – an alcoholic drink – and dancing with their boss, a choice she now calls a “bad decision.”
“I made a bad decision and had a couple of High Noons… I took accountability and I gave up my career for that. That’s the price I chose to pay,” she told The New York Times.
The fallout was swift. Cabot officially resigned from her role at Astronomer on 24 July 2025, shortly after the incident went viral and triggered an internal investigation. Byron also stepped down as CEO in the wake of the controversy.
Admitting sadly that the moment has ruined her life, she added incredulously, “I’m not some celebrity, I’m just a mom from New Hampshire. Even if I did have an affair, it’s not anybody’s business.
“It has been like a scarlet letter; people erased everything I’d accomplished in my life and achieved in my career. This can’t be the final word.”
Backlash
What began as an awkward but brief moment quickly escalated into a global debacle with real-world consequences. Cabot said she and her family faced intense online harassment, including death threats and doxxing, with some weeks bringing hundreds of unwanted phone calls daily and paparazzi outside her home.
She revealed that the public scrutiny even affected her children, who became reluctant to be seen with her in public and were afraid for their safety. Cabot said one voicemail – a threatening message her teenage children overheard – marked a turning point, and “that’s when the wheels fell off the cart.”
Admitting that she was in ‘too dark a place’ to parent, Cabot went to an Airbnb in the New Hampshire mountains for a few days. She said: “I became a meme, the most maligned HR manager in HR history. I think as a woman, as women always do, I took the bulk of the abuse. People would say things like I was a ‘gold-digger’ or I ‘slept my way to the top’, which just couldn’t be further from reality.”
Now, months later, having been told she is ‘unemployable’, she told the Times, the ordeal is not over. As well as her job, she has lost friends, and her kids are too embarrassed to have her take them to school or sports events. She said, “They’re mad at me. And they can be mad at me for the rest of their lives — I have to take that.”
Beyond the threats, Cabot has also spoken about the gendered nature of the backlash – feeling that she bore a disproportionate share of public condemnation and sexist insults compared to her male counterpart, despite both being in a similar situation.
As well as horrific online abuse, she said mothers still gossip about her at the school gate – and strangers shout nasty abuse in the street.
Divorce
Cabot had filed for divorce from her husband a few weeks after the incident, whom she said had been “nothing but a gentleman” in the wake of everything that happened.
She explained that she and Andy revealed about a month before the now notorious concert that they were split from their partners – Kristin from her husband Andrew, CEO of a family-run distillery, Privateer Rum, and Andrew from his wife, Megan, a school teacher.
Cabot admitted, “To have someone else going through it at the exact same time that you can talk to was an amazing support.”
Her feelings towards her boss, she revealed, soon blossomed into “a big happy crush” – and when she was offered two free tickets to see Coldplay from her pals, she offered the other to him.
She also revealed that on the night in question, her 14-year-old daughter had texted to let her know that her estranged second husband, Andrew, would be there too – discovering later from a friend that he was there on a first date.
Kristin decided amid the immediate fallout that she wanted her children to know before anyone else, but said her daughter “burst into tears, saying, ‘I guess that means you really are getting divorced then‘”. While her son tried to convince her that the whole debacle would “probably go away”.
Describing her evolving relationship with Byron, the mum say their contact has since dwindled as they agreed limited communication was healthier for everyone involved.
Despite the professional setback and global ridicule, Cabot said she hopes her experience can serve as a teaching moment, especially for her children.
The mum said she wants them to understand that while “you can make mistakes and really screw up,” people shouldn’t face death threats or threats to their family’s safety for those mistakes.
She tearfully admitted in the powerful interview that she has one wish for the future: “We have to be kinder to each other, not constantly tear one another down.”
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