‘Kids Feared I Was Going To Die’: Ex-Astronomer HR Head Kristin Cabot On Coldplay Scandal

Kristin Cabot, the human resources executive who went viral after being caught in a kiss-cam moment with her then-boss Andy Byron at a Coldplay concert, has finally addressed the backlash after the furore that happened in July.

In an interview with The New York Times, Cabot, a 53-year-old mother of two and former Chief People Officer at US tech firm Astronomer, spoke about the profound emotional toll the incident took on her and, more painfully, on her children.

She said that this period was marked by relentless online harassment, death threats, and public shaming that left her family fearful for their safety.

Cabot, who was separated from her husband at the time, said that she had acted inappropriately after drinking “a couple of High Noons” and acknowledged

that the moment- captured during a kiss-cam segment at the concert- had lasting consequences.

“I made a bad decision,” she said, adding that she had “taken accountability” and “given up” her career as a result.

“I screwed up,” she said, adding that her decision to speak publicly now was driven by a desire to show her children that while people make mistakes, they should never be subjected to threats of violence for them.

According to Cabot, the fallout was swift and severe. Her personal information was allegedly exposed online, triggering a wave of harassment. She said she began receiving threatening messages soon after the clip circulated, including one chilling warning from someone who claimed to know where she shopped and told her, “I’m coming for you.” At the height of the controversy, Cabot reported receiving as many as 600 phone calls a day and between 50 and 60 death threats. Paparazzi, she said, camped outside her home in what she described as a constant “parade.”

The impact on her children—a 14-year-old daughter and a teenage son—was devastating. Cabot said they became terrified for their lives after overhearing a threatening voicemail played on speakerphone for her mother. “They were already in really bad shape and that’s when the wheels fell off the cart,” she told the news outlet.

“Because my kids were afraid that I was going to die and they were going to die,” she said.

Beyond the threats, Cabot said her children were subjected to public scrutiny and humiliation. She recalled an incident at a local pool where a woman photographed her and her daughter, prompting the girl to beg through tears to leave. Her children, she said, grew so embarrassed and fearful that they temporarily refused to let her pick them up from school or attend their sporting events. “They’re mad at me,” Cabot said. “And they can be mad at me for the rest of their lives—I have to take that.”

In another encounter, Cabot said a group of women approached her after she picked up her son from work, referring to her dismissively as “that girl” and attempting to shame her. “I didn’t know what to do to support my kids correctly,” she admitted.

To cope with what Cabot described as “severe trauma,” both children began seeing therapists and only recently started returning to school as the harassment gradually subsided.

The Coldplay Concert Controversy

The controversy erupted on July 16 this year, when Kristin, then the Chief People Officer at Astronomer, was caught on a jumbotron at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, in an embrace with her boss, then-CEO Andy Byron, during a Coldplay concert.

During the concert, frontman Chris Martin decided to spice up the crowd with the classic kiss cam game. As the camera panned across the thousands of fans in attendance, it suddenly landed on Byron and Cabot.

The pair, seen with their arms around each other, quickly reacted as frontman Chris Martin commented, “Oh, look at these two.” As the camera lingered, Byron abruptly pulled away and ducked behind a barrier while Cabot covered her face with her hands, visibly embarrassed.

The clip quickly went viral, turning both executives into internet memes and triggering intense scrutiny of their professional conduct.

She confirmed that she has not spoken to her former boss for months, apart from brief contact to exchange crisis-management advice. Kristin Cabot formally filed for divorce roughly a month after the video went viral.