Kristin Cabot has some harsh words for Andy Byron, her former boss, with whom she was caught in a viral moment during a Coldplay concert last summer. Both of them tried to hide from the public eye, and Chris Martin even joked from the stage that they might be having an "affair." This incident, in which Cabot was caught on the so-called "kiss cam" while wrapped in Byron's arms, turned their lives and careers upside down and led to relentless scrutiny, criticism, harassment, and even death threats, as Cabot has said.
At the time, Cabot was working as the head of human relations for Astronomer, a tech company. Byron was the CEO. They soon left their roles. Both were married when they attended the concert, but Cabot was already in the process of divorcing her estranged husband. She believed Byron was in a similar situation.
Now, in a new sit-down with Oprah Winfrey, after Cabot broke her silence in a pair of interviews late last year, she is sharing an update about her relationship with Byron. On The Oprah Podcast on Tuesday, March 17th, Cabot said she "ended communication" with him last fall. "There was a significant lack of honesty and integrity," she told Winfrey, adding, "He wasn't the person he represented himself to be to me - and lying is a non-negotiable for me."
When Winfrey pressed on what Cabot meant, saying it sounded like she was suggesting Byron had lied to her about also being separated from his own wife, Cabot demurred. She said it would be unfair for her to answer that as she knew what it felt like to have one's private life in the spotlight. "I want to be really careful because the world spoke for me and on my behalf, and I don't want to do that to somebody else and their family," she said.
However, she said, "A lot of what was represented to me was not true." Speaking with Winfrey, Cabot reiterated what she has said before: that she thought Byron had split from his own wife when they attended the Coldplay concert together along with some of Cabot's friends. "Without a doubt," she believed that at the time. They kissed that night but didn't have a sexual relationship, Cabot told The New York Times last year. She told Winfrey that the concert was the first time they had any intimate physical contact.
Byron has never spoken publicly about their relationship and previously declined to comment to the Times when Cabot spoke with the paper. He has not responded to multiple attempts by PEOPLE to reach him for comment. After the Coldplay concert, Byron was seen publicly with his wife; both were wearing their wedding rings.
Speaking with Winfrey, Cabot said she felt stranded in the spotlight after the story broke. "I was left holding the bag - and I don't know, being the one that was attacked for this while he [Byron] remained silent. To me, that's not a quality I would look for in a friend or a partner or a boss," she said. "So we have no relationship now."
She told the Times last year that after the concert, she and Byron checked in on one another throughout the summer. "Honestly, a lot of it was like: 'Hi. It's 11 o'clock on a Tuesday. Any advice?'" she said. In a separate interview last year, Cabot told the Times in the U.K. that their chats amounted to "crisis management advice." Then, in September, they met for the last time, she said.
Cabot told The New York Times that they decided "speaking with each other would make it too hard for everyone to move on and heal." Appearing on The Oprah Podcast, Cabot said she felt like she and Byron were treated differently by the public after being caught on the kiss cam. As one example, she said, "Every single part of my physical appearance was picked apart."
Cabot said repeatedly in her sit-down with Winfrey that she'd made a "mistake," but the worldwide reaction, both online and in real life, was disproportionately cruel. "I own the poor decision I made in that moment, and I've paid an unimaginable price for that," she said. Professionally, she said, Byron has fielded job offers while she's had more challenges. "I think he has the luxury of staying silent and can go back to work when he's ready," she said. "I don't have that luxury. I have to remind myself I'm not on trial, but I have to in order for me to get back on my feet, I have to come out and explain."
Overall, the experience - and choosing to speak out - helped teach her about the importance of empathy in the digital age, especially when it's too easy for a person to be reduced to a single moment and turned into a meme. Now she wants to share that with others. "I can't stay silent and accept what has happened," Cabot told Winfrey. "And I do feel like it's important that people understand the real story and also how harmful it is to just make assumptions and judge and feed and fuel something that created this narrative."
