Exec Caught on Coldplay ‘Kiss Cam’ with Married Boss Breaks Her Silence: ‘Bad Decision’ and ‘Couple of High Noons’

Kristin Cabot is speaking publicly for the first time months after a viral clip of her and her boss, Andy Byron, at a Coldplay concert upended her life.

In her first interview since the backlash, Cabot told The New York Times that the moment — quickly dubbed online as #coldplaygate — cost her her job and subjected her to months of public shaming, harassment and threats.

“I made a bad decision and had a couple of [alcoholic] High Noons and danced and acted inappropriately with my boss,” Cabot said. “And it’s not nothing. I took accountability and I gave up my career for that. That’s the price I chose to pay.”

Cabot and Byron attended the Coldplay show at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., on July 16 with friends when the “kiss cam” caught them together, his arms wrapped around her. Both tried to duck out of view, and Chris Martin joked from the stage that they might be having an “affair.”

The video surged past 100 million views within days, turning Cabot into what The New York Times described as “a punchline and a target” almost overnight.

Before that moment, Cabot told the U.K. newspaper The Times in a separate interview that she had “a big happy crush” on Byron.

“I definitely thought he was a good-looking guy and I had that thought of, ‘If I didn’t work here …,’ ” Cabot said.

According to The Times, Cabot said both she and Byron were going through marital separations at the time.

The status of Byron’s relationship remains unclear, however, despite Cabot’s account: He has not commented publicly, and he and his wife were seen together in September wearing their wedding rings.

Still, Cabot told The Times that their overlapping situations created a sense of support. “I don’t think my separation would have come as a surprise to [Byron], but his definitely did for me,” she said. “To have someone else going through it at the exact same time that you can talk to was an amazing support.”

Cabot also described her personal circumstances at the time, saying she and her second husband, Andrew, were in what she called an “amicable separation.”

“My immediate reaction was, ‘Holy s—, Andrew’s here’, ” Cabot told The Times of that night. “We were in the middle of an incredibly — and amazingly — amicable separation. I was worried I would embarrass him. He’s an amazing guy and does not deserve that.”

She said another thought hit just as quickly: Byron was her boss. “Then a beat later my mind turns to, ‘Oh God, Andy’s my effing boss,’ this is a bad look,” she said. “Boston’s not a big town. And while it wasn’t an Astronomer event or anything, there could have been investors or other staff there.”

Cabot told The New York Times that online abuse escalated fast. She said she was labeled “a slut,” “a homewrecker” and “a gold digger,” while strangers scrutinized her appearance. She said she was doxxed and, for weeks, received “500 or 600 calls a day.” Paparazzi waited outside her home, and she received death threats.

Even after #coldplaygate faded from the spotlight, she said she still lives with it “every day.”

She recalled being recognized while pumping gas weeks later, when a stranger called her “disgusting” and told her, “You don’t even deserve to breathe the same air that I breathe.”

Her children, she said, became hesitant to go out with her. “They were afraid that I was going to die and they were going to die,” she said. “That’s when the wheels fell off the cart.”

Cabot insisted she was not in a sexual relationship with Byron and said the concert was the first and only time they kissed.

When the “kiss cam” captured them mid-embrace, she said, the feeling flipped instantly from joy to fear.

“I was so embarrassed and so horrified,” she said. “I’m the head of H.R. and he’s the C.E.O. It’s, like, so cliché and so bad. … We both just sat there with our heads in our hands, like, ‘What just happened?’ ”

That night, Cabot said she and Byron discussed informing the company’s board. By morning, she said, the TikTok had exploded.

Days later, Byron resigned. After he stepped down, the company said that “our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.”

Cabot said that after an internal investigation, Astronomer asked her to return to her role — but she declined and negotiated her resignation, which was announced July 24. “I could not imagine how I could stand up as H.R. chief when I was a laughingstock,” she said.

Cabot has since filed for divorce from Andrew, who she told The New York Times has been “nothing but a gentleman.”

Her contact with Byron has been minimal, she said, since one final meeting in September.

What she wants now, Cabot said, is not internet forgiveness but basic understanding — especially for the sake of her children. “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,” she said.

Earlier this year, someone close to Cabot disputed what they described as “misinformation” about what happened between her and Byron at the concert.

“Kristin and Andy [Byron] had an excellent working relationship, a great friendship. There was no affair,” the person said. “It was inappropriate to be hugging your boss at a concert, and she accepts full responsibility for it. But the scandal, the downfall, the loss of the job — all of that is unfair.”

They also said Cabot and Andrew had been living apart and pushed back on the idea that he was abroad and blindsided, claiming he was at the same concert on a date.

“These are real people and real families,” the person added. “The way people have taken a lot of enjoyment at their expense, it’s hard to see.”