Kristin Cabot: HR exec in viral Coldplay clip speaks of abuse, threats and trying to find a new job


The video, which showed the pair swaying to music at the concert in Boston, Massachusetts, before trying to hide, quickly went viral, after Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin said to the crowd: “Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy.”

It was watched millions of times, shared widely across platforms, and the pair became the butt of many jokes. Within a few days, the internet had moved on, but for Ms Cabot, her ordeal had only just begun.

“I became a meme, I was the most maligned HR manager in HR history,” Ms Cabot told The Times, external.

Ms Cabot was separated from her husband, who was also at the concert.

In a separate interview with the New York Times, external, she explained she was not in a sexual relationship with Mr Byron and the pair had never kissed before that night – although she admits to having had a “crush” on her boss.

“I made a bad decision and had a couple of High Noons and danced and acted inappropriately with my boss,” she said, adding she “took accountability and I gave up my career for that”.

As to why she chose to speak out now, Ms Cabot told the Times “…it’s not over for me, and it’s not over for my kids. The harassment never ended”.

Her two children are too embarrassed to be picked up from school by their mother, she said, or to go to sports games.

“They’re mad at me. And they can be mad at me for the rest of their lives – I have to take that.”

Ms Cabot wondered whether Mr Byron had received the same level of abuse throughout the ordeal, the Times reported.

“I think as a woman, as women always do, I took the bulk of the abuse. People would say things like I was a ‘gold-digger’ or I ‘slept my way to the top’, which just couldn’t be further from reality,” she said.

“I worked so hard to dispel that all my life and here I was being accused of it.”

At the peak of the scandal, her appearance, body, face and clothes were scrutinised and picked apart, with many high-profile celebrities including Whoopi Golderg piling on. Gwyneth Paltrow, who was once married to Chris Martin, even took part in a tongue-in-cheek promotional video for Astronomer.


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