When the boss and the exec tried their best, but they didn’t succeed in hiding an intimate moment at the Coldplay concert.
Just about five months ago, the Coldplay concert took the internet by storm, not just because of their hit tracks but because Kristin Cabot and her boss, Andy Byron, were caught red-handed grooving to them on camera. Now, per PEOPLE, Cabot is finally breaking her silence. Speaking to the New York Times, for what seems to be her first interview after the fiasco, Cabot opened up about the ramifications she faced in her life.
She said, “I made a bad decision and had a couple of High Noons and danced and acted inappropriately with my boss. And it’s not nothing. I took accountability, and I gave up my career for that. That’s the price I chose to pay.”
Following the fallout, Cabot had to bear the brunt of that moment, which started gaining traction online as #coldplaygate. As per the reports, she not only resigned from her job but had to face months of public shaming, harassment, and threats.
On July 16, when that incident happened, Cabot and Byron were with friends at the Coldplay show at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. When the “kiss cam” captured them, Byron was caught red-handed with their arms wrapped around her. Although they tried to hide from view, the camera captured their embarrassment. In fact, Chris Martin even joked from the stage that they might be having an “affair.” Within just a few days, the video broke the internet with more than 100 million views, turning Cabot into what The New York Times described “a punchline and a target” overnight.
Speaking to The Times previously, Cabot had confessed that she had “a big happy crush” on her boss.
She said, “I definitely thought he was a good-looking guy and I had that thought of, ‘If I didn’t work here…'”
According to the news outlet, both Cabot and Byron were separating from their respective spouses at the time of the incident.
“I don’t think my separation would have come as a surprise to him, but his definitely did for me. To have someone else going through it at the exact same time that you can talk to was an amazing support”, Cabot shared.
Cabot revealed that she and her second husband, Andrew Cabot, the CEO of a rum distillery and a member of one of Boston’s most storied families, were in the process of “an amicable separation.”
Speaking to The Times, Cabot confessed, “My immediate reaction was, ‘Holy s—, Andrew’s here.’ 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.”
“Then a beat later, my mind turns to, ‘Oh God, Andy’s my effing boss, ’ this is a bad look. 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”, she continued.
According to The New York Times, Kristin shared that she was labeled “a slut”, “a homewrecker”, and “a gold digger.” She was scrutinized under a patriarchal lens, and as she shared, she received “500 or 600 calls a day.” From paparazzi parking their car outside her home to death threats inundating her life, she suffered from extreme humiliation and shame.
Although the world has moved on, Kristin explained that she lives with it “everyday.” She talked about how she was recognised at the 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.”
Not only that, but she revealed her children were hesitant to be seen with her in public. Kristin said, “They were afraid that I was going to die, and they were going to die. That’s when the wheels fell off the cart.”
Days after the fallout, Byron resigned. Following his resignation, the company officially stated that “our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.”