It turned out to be a defining — and devastating — moment for her. The HR executive who was caught getting cozy with her married boss on the Coldplay concert kiss cam has finally broken her silence about the scandal that upended her life and career. Kristin Cabot said the incident followed a "bad decision" made after having "a couple of High Noons."
Cabot, a 53-year-old mother of two, spoke publicly for the first time in interviews published Thursday, months after a brief, 16-second display of affection with her then-boss, Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, went viral. The moment quickly turned her into an internet meme and, she says, left her effectively unemployable.
Regretting Her Decision
"I made a bad decision and had a couple of High Noons and danced and acted inappropriately with my boss," Cabot told the New York Times, as she admitted that Byron was her "big happy crush." "And it's not nothing. And I took accountability and I gave up my career for that. That's the price I chose to pay."
She also pushed back against the intense backlash that followed, saying the fallout from the scandal felt "too much" and undeserved after the very public, soap-opera-style moment.
"I could have been struck by lightning, I could have won the lottery, or this could have happened," Cabot told the Times of London in a separate interview.
"But I'm not some celebrity, I'm just a mom from New Hampshire," she added. "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."
Instead, she told the UK Times that she was quickly turned into an internet meme — something she believes has haunted her ever since and made her "unemployable."
"I was the most maligned HR manager in HR history," she said.
The disgraced executive said that both she and her then-boss were on friendly terms with their spouses and already separated when they went to the concert with her friends.
Cabot, who had only joined the company just before November, admitted she had developed what she described as a "big, happy crush" on Byron after finding out about a month before the show that he, too, was in the middle of a marital split.
"I wanted to put a cute outfit on and go out and dance and laugh and have a great night," she told the NYT. "And that's how it was tracking."
"Some inside part of my brain might have been jumping up and down and waving its arms, saying, 'Don't do this,'" she admitted, but ultimately she was swayed by how "pumped" she was to be there with him in front of friends.
Deeply in Love
The HR executive said she felt "on top of the world" in the moments leading up to being caught on camera in the middle of their embrace. "We were sitting in the back of the stadium at the opposite end from the stage in the pitch black just feeling totally anonymous in an arena of 50, 60,000 people," she told the UK Times.
"We were just dancing, I'd had a few High Noons. Andy was standing behind me and we were dancing and I grabbed him," Cabot continued.
"I didn't hear the announcement that the jumbotron was coming, so suddenly I'm just seeing us on screen."
Despite the affectionate moment caught on screen, Cabot acknowledged that she was aware her soon-to-be ex-husband was somewhere in the crowd at the Coldplay concert.
She said the realization "threw" her, and it was the very first thing that went through her mind when she saw the image of her cozy moment splashed across the big screen.
"My immediate reaction was, 'Holy s–t, Andrew's here,'" Cabot said of her of ex. "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."
Elsewhere, Cabot said the ordeal completely turned her life upside down and derailed her career, admitting that the wave of public shaming left her being labeled as "unemployable."
