Kristin Cabot, a 53-year-old mother of two, has gone public with her story after an embarrassing viral “kiss cam” encounter at a Coldplay concert. Before that she was the HR Director at Astronomer. The lawsuit stemmed from her twerking and grinding up on her manager, Andy Byron. It had significant fallout on her career and eventually forced her to resign from Astronomer.
Cabot went to the concert at a very unstable moment in her life, having recently split from her husband. She let it slip that she drank a few High Noons before the party. This was likely a contributing factor to her actions that night. In reflecting on the situation, she expressed regret: “I made a bad decision and had a couple of High Noons and danced and acted inappropriately with my boss. And it’s not nothing.”
The video of the incident went viral, and attracted conflicting praise and criticism from the public. In the aftermath, Cabot did feel especially targeted by other women, illustrating a pressure she contended with under the media microscope. “What I’ve seen these last months makes it harder for me to believe that it’s all about the men holding us back. I truly believe [women] are holding ourselves back hugely by just tearing each other down,” she said.
In the aftermath of her viral moment, Cabot has made the decision to step down from her role at Astronomer. She acknowledged the weight of her decision: “I took accountability and I gave up my career for that. That’s the price I chose to pay.” Now, almost six months after the crash, she’s still working to rebuild her life. She is simultaneously looking for new job opportunities.
Beyond the wreckage Cabot was diligent about staying connected with Byron immediately following the incident. Yet he can’t help but to lament how their correspondence has faded since. She felt that their talks were preventing everyone on all sides from healing. “Speaking with Andy Byron was going to make it too hard for everyone to move on and heal,” she explained.
Cabot’s experience has shaped her children in a deep way. When all hell broke loose in the aftermath of her kiss cam fiasco, they feared for her safety. “My kids were afraid that I was going to die and they were going to die,” she shared, underlining the personal impact of her public misstep.
As she navigates this challenging chapter in her life, Cabot aims to convey an important message to her children: that mistakes can happen, but they do not define a person.
