Featured Image Credit: YouTube/The Oprah Podcast
Topics: Coldplay, Oprah Winfrey, Viral
Callum Jones
Kristin Cabot, who went viral last year during a Coldplay concert after she was caught on camera seemingly cozying up to her boss, has sat down with Oprah Winfrey to discuss the viral moment.
Cabot, who has since resigned from her position as Chief People Officer of Astronomer, had been watching the British band with Andy Byron, the former CEO of the New York-based company, at the Gillette Stadium in Boston last July.
The pair, who were having an intimate moment, appeared on the arena's big screen, much to their embarrassment.
"Either they're having an affair, or they're just really shy," Coldplay frontman Chris Martin said at the time.
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The clip was then shared on social media, garnering more than 150 million views on TikTok and cementing its status in recent pop culture memory.
Months on, Cabot appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Podcast on Tuesday (March 17), where she spoke in more depth, revealing that she and her husband were already separated at the time of the concert.
She went on to say that she and Bryon had a 'close working relationship' as a result of their jobs, as she said: "For anyone that's worked in tech in a high-growth start-up, they'll understand that the chief people officer and the CEO are partners. We work side-by-side around the clock."
As a result of the hectic nature of the business, they 'spent a lot of time together' and after informing him of her impending divorce, Bryon told her that he was in a similar situation with his wife, which became 'a really instant point of connection' between them.
Over time, Cabot developed romantic feelings for Byron. They were planning to go to the board of Astronomer and come clean, with the aim of making it so she no longer reported to him.
Cabot said: "We had a lot of personal conversations and had acknowledged that we had feelings for each other.
"It was becoming apparent to me that we were putting ourselves in a situation where it was going to get risky from a work standpoint."
Cabot said she was invited to the Coldplay concert by her friends, who had 'two extra seats', so she invited Bryon to come along.
"I was walking into the concert and my daughter messaged me and said ‘oh it’s so great that you and Andrew [her husband] are both at Coldplay’. So she let me know that my estranged husband was also at the concert," Cabot said.
"In my mind, I thought, well, is this going to be weird if he sees me with Andy? Like that crossed my mind. If I run into him. But then I was like I’m in Gillette Stadium, there’s 55,000 people here, I’m probably not going to run into him."
Now reflecting on it, she said it 'would've been better at the end of the day, if I had just run into him'.
Cabot added that her estranged husband knew 'how closely Andy and I work together', so 'he knows we socially got lunches and got drinks'.
"It was fine," she continued. "He knows the nature of my work and the way the relationships - I've shared desks with CEOs I've worked with, like it's just a very close relationship. And so it didn't matter."
A spokesperson for Cabot's ex-husband confirmed to People that they 'were privately and amicably separated several weeks before the Coldplay concert'.
"Their decision to divorce was already underway prior to that evening," they added. "Now that the divorce filing is public, Andrew hopes this provides respectful closure to speculation and allows his family the privacy they’ve always valued."
Bryon has not publicly commented on what happened, but in October, he and his wife were spotted out together several times, including a beach picnic and a walk, the Daily Mail reports.
On July 15, 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."
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 there were other Astronomer team members present, and flagged false statements attributed to Bryon that were circulating online.
A second statement followed, which revealed that Bryon had been 'placed on leave'.
On July 19, 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'.
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'.
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 an 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."
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."