Exec Caught on Coldplay ‘Kiss Cam’ with Married Boss Has Been Told She’s ‘Unemployable’ amid Search for a New Job

Kristin Cabot, the woman seen in the viral Coldplay “kiss cam” moment with her boss, says she has struggled to find work since the controversy reshaped both her personal and professional life earlier this year.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the incident in interviews with The New York Times and the U.K.’s The Times, Cabot, 53, described facing public shaming, harassment, and threats after the clip spread online — and said it ultimately cost her job.

Cabot told The Times she has been actively job hunting, but claimed she has been told she is “unemployable” following widespread speculation that she had an affair with Andy Byron, Astronomer’s former CEO.

“It has been like a scarlet letter; people erased everything I’d accomplished in my life and achieved in my career,” she said. “This can’t be the final word.”

A mother of two, Cabot served as Astronomer’s chief people officer, a role she began in November 2024.

After Astronomer concluded an internal investigation into the Coldplay episode, Cabot told The New York Times the company asked her to return to her position. She said she declined and instead negotiated her resignation.

“I could not imagine how I could stand up as H.R. chief when I was a laughingstock,” she told the newspaper.

She expressed a similar sentiment to The Times, saying that while some criticized her for not taking accountability, the board had urged her to stay — and she couldn’t see how she could do that given her responsibilities.

“There was a lot of noise around me not taking accountability, but what actually happened is the board said, ‘Please stay,’” she said. “And I said, ‘How, given my job is to be the one to show people how we are expected to behave, our standards, our values?’”

Cabot added that if the moment hadn’t spiraled online, she believes she could have apologized and continued in her role.

“If it hadn’t turned into what it did online, I could have stood up and said, ‘It was a really bad decision and I regret it. I’m so sorry for the position I put you all in, but I’m committed to this place’ and stayed in my job,” she said.

According to The New York Times, Cabot began her career in advertising and sales before transitioning into human resources. She told the publication she has a strong work ethic and will “go through a brick wall to get something done.” A friend, Alyson Welch, who worked with Cabot at the tech company neo4j, said Cabot always came across as “hyper-professional.”

Cabot also pushed back on insinuations about how she built her career, telling The New York Times that accusations she was “sleeping around” angered her.

“I spent so much of my career pulling men’s hands off my ass,” Cabot — who has worked since she was 13 years old, per the outlet — said.

Cabot and Byron attended a Coldplay show with friends at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., on July 16. They appeared together on the venue’s “kiss cam” with Byron’s arms around her, and both tried to duck out of view. From the stage, Chris Martin joked that they might be having an “affair.”

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

Cabot told The Times she was in a marital separation at the time of the concert and was in the process of divorcing Andrew Cabot. The status of Byron’s relationship has remained unclear.

In her interview with The New York Times, Cabot said Byron had indicated he was also separating from his wife, Megan. She noted he has not commented publicly and said he and his wife were seen together in public in September wearing wedding rings. Cabot added that the concert was the only time she and Byron kissed.

Contact between the two has been limited since a final meeting in September, she said. Cabot told The New York Times they concluded that speaking would make it harder “for everyone to move on and heal.”