Coldplay kiss cam woman slams 'liar' CEO after sharing text that completely changes scandal
The woman who went viral after being caught canoodling with her boss on a kiss cam at a Coldplay concert has said there was 'a big miss on honesty and integrity', revealing she's since 'ended communication' with the 'lying' CEO.
Everyone knows what Kristin Cabot did last summer, because the moment blew up massively and went viral around the world.
She worked for the company Astronomer and was filmed at the concert with CEO Andy Byron - who was married but claimed to be separated from his wife.
When they realised the camera was on them, they quickly tried to hide, which only made matters worse as this resulted in global speculation that they were having an affair - something that was fuelled by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who said to the crowd of 55,000 people: "Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy."
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In a matter of days from the video being posted on social media, both of them were out of their jobs, and after months of silence, Cabot decided to speak exclusively to the New York Times in December to give her version of events and reveal that the situation wasn't as scandalous as it appeared.
Kristin Cabot's tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey
Now, almost a year on from the bombshell moment, Cabot has spoken further about the effect the incident has had on her life since in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
She revealed she got a text from her daughter on the day of the concert telling her that her estranged husband, Andrew Cabot, was also there.
"I was walking into the concert and my daughter messaged me and said, 'Oh it’s so great that you and Andrew are both at Coldplay'," she told Winfrey in a clip promoting The Oprah Podcast.
She had been in the process of divorcing her husband at the time, but knew he was also in the crowd at the Coldplay concert.
She admitted she wondered if it would be strange for him to see her with the Astronomer CEO, and reckoned with hindsight that it would have been for the best if they'd bumped into each other beforehand.
Cabot's relationship with CEO Andy Byron
Cabot also claimed she wasn't in a sexual relationship with her former boss, saying they kissed for the first time that night and that there's 'no relationship' between them now.
She's said she 'ended communication' with Byron last year and told Winfrey there'd been 'a big miss on honesty and integrity'.
“He wasn't the person he represented himself to be, to me — and lying is a non-negotiable for me," she said.
Cabot wouldn't go into details on exactly what her former CEO had been lying about as she knew what having one's private life exposed felt like, with her issuing a plea for people to stop sending her death threats.
"A lot of what was represented to me was not true," she said.
A timeline of the Coldplay kiss cam event
The concert that started it all
On 15 July, Byron and Cabot attended the concert, where they were filmed seemingly getting comfortable, with him having his arms around her.
When the camera landed on them, the pair quickly dodged out of frame, though the moment was captured by another audience member, Grace Springer, who then uploaded the clip to social media.
In an interview following the aftermath, Springer told ITV's This Morning that she didn't regret sharing the video and that she's 'not the only one that caught it on camera', adding: "So if it wasn't me who uploaded it, I'm sure someone else would've."
Astronomer responds
After the internet identified Byron and Cabot, Astronomer issued a statement in response on their social media, saying they had 'initiated a formal investigation into this matter and we will have additional details to share very shortly'.
They also dismissed theories that Cabot was another Astronomer team member, and false apologies attributed to Bryon online as 'incorrect'.
A second statement followed, which revealed that Bryon had been 'placed on leave'.
Bryon and Cabot resign from Astronomer
On 19 July, the company announced Bryon's resignation, writing: "Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted. The Board will begin a search for our next Chief Executive as Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO."
A few days later, Cabot's resignation was also announced, as Astronomer said 'that Kristin Cabot is no longer with Astronomer. She has resigned'.
'A household name'
Astronomer's co-founder, Pete DeJoy, who'd taken over as interim CEO in the wake of Bryon's resignation, put out a statement on LinkedIn, reflecting on the incident and the media attention the company had received.
While he 'would never have wished for it to happen like this', he went on to say that Astronomer had become 'a household name'.
Chris Martin responds
During a performance in Hull, UK, Martin addressed the viral incident when talking about the 'jumbotron', saying: "This is called a jumbotron, and we've done this for a long, long time, and we pick people out to say hello, and sometimes they - yeah, they turn out to be internationally massive scandal, sure.
"But most of the time we're just trying to say hello to f**king people, that's all. Now all of this bulls**t."
Cabot speaks out
In an interview with the Times in December, Cabot revealed she was still experiencing the fallout from the moment, saying she had been left 'unemployable'.
She also told the New York Times that she and Bryon weren't in a sexual relationship and she hadn't kissed him until they were caught on camera that night, but she realised what the situation would look like from the outside.
She added: "I was so embarrassed and so horrified. I’m the head of H.R., and he’s the C.E.O. It’s, like, so cliché and so bad."
Additional words by Britt Jones.
Joe Harker