Lost jobs, a dissolved marriage, and death threats: Kristin Cabot calls her “moment of high spirits” with CEO Andy Byron the biggest mistake of her life.

In mid-December, nearly five months after a split-second moment turned into a viral firestorm, Kristin Cabot is finally breaking her silence. The 53-year-old former head of human resources at tech firm Astronomer says the incident at a Coldplay concert didn’t just change her life—it dismantled it.

“It was a terrible decision,” Cabot said.

The fallout dates back to July 16 at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts. Amidst the high-energy atmosphere of a Coldplay performance, Cabot admits she had consumed several cocktails and spirits. In a state of inebriation, she introduced CEO Andy Byron to her group of friends, and the two were seen dancing together in the VIP section.

The situation turned from celebratory to catastrophic when the stadium’s “Kiss Cam” swept through the crowd, locking onto Byron with his arm around Cabot. As they flashed across the Jumbotron before tens of thousands of fans, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin quipped to the crowd: “Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy.”

In that moment, Byron reportedly gasped: “Oh no, is that us?”

Cabot describes the feeling as one of pure “shame and horror.” The pair immediately pulled apart and fled the stands to escape the camera’s glare. “I was the head of HR, and he was the CEO. The optics were disastrous,” she recalled.

After leaving the stadium, they sat in a bar with their heads in their hands, paralyzed by anxiety, before heading to Cabot’s Boston apartment to draft an explanatory email to the company’s board. But the internet moved faster. By the next morning, a clip of the moment had exploded on TikTok, racking up 46 million views in just 24 hours.

The professional repercussions were swift. Astronomer launched an internal investigation, and by July 19, Byron had resigned. Shortly thereafter, Cabot submitted her own resignation.

However, the professional fallout was only the beginning. Cabot found herself the target of a vitriolic online mob, including death threats from strangers. “I want my children to understand that everyone makes mistakes, but no one deserves to have their life threatened over one,” she said, reflecting on how decades of building a clean professional reputation vanished overnight.

The toll on her family has been profound. Her children required therapy to cope with the trauma and the fear that their mother might harm herself. Her husband, Andrew—from whom she had been separated for two years and who was actually at the same concert with a new girlfriend—chose to remain silent to protect the family’s privacy. Cabot described his restraint as “incredibly gentlemanly.”

Today, Cabot is slowly re-emerging and trying to find her footing. While she stayed in touch with Byron throughout the summer to lean on each other for support, she cut off all contact in September. She realized that “healing is impossible” while constantly looking back at the past.

On August 13, Cabot officially filed for divorce. Meanwhile, Byron is reportedly attempting to reconcile with his wife.

The Woman Behind the Viral ‘Kiss Cam’ Clip Breaks Her Silence After CEO’s Ouster

When Grace Springer posted a TikTok of a couple at a Coldplay concert, she had no idea she was about to topple a $1.3 billion company’s leadership.

Grace Springer, a 28-year-old New Jersey resident and longtime Coldplay fan, headed to Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts on a Wednesday night for what she thought would be a standard concert experience. But during the band’s signature “Kiss Cam” segment, she captured a moment that would soon set the internet on fire.

As frontman Chris Martin’s camera scanned the crowd, it landed on a couple locked in an intimate embrace.

“I thought their reaction was interesting—half embarrassed, half shocked to be on the big screen—so I filmed it and shared it on TikTok,” Springer said. “I had no idea who they were. I just thought it was a funny, lighthearted moment.”

The internet thought otherwise. By the next morning, the clip had exploded, racking up over 7 million views overnight. Within 48 hours, the video had surpassed 46 million views and nearly 5 million likes.

In the footage, Chris Martin can be heard joking to the stadium: “Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy.” The man in the video is seen visibly flinching, dropping his arm and ducking behind a railing, while the woman quickly shields her face and turns away.

Digital sleuths wasted no time deconstructing the video. They quickly identified the man as Andy Byron, CEO of the $1.3 billion tech firm Astronomer. His companion was Kristin Cabot, the company’s head of human resources, who had only been with the firm for nine months.

The discovery prompted a deep dive into their professional history. On LinkedIn, the two had frequently traded public praise. Byron once described Cabot as a “distinguished leader” with “deep expertise in talent management,” while Cabot noted she felt “energized by her conversations with Andy.”

As the video went viral, the pair was engulfed by a wave of public condemnation. Many commenters characterized the incident as a “caught in the act” exposure of an affair. One top comment read: “Sorry for the wife, but glad they were publicly shamed.” Another user remarked: “Unbelievable that they’d go to a massive concert while having an affair. Risky business.”

Standing at the center of the digital storm, Springer admitted she was overwhelmed by the scale of the reaction. “When I posted it before bed, it only had a few thousand views. When I woke up, it was in the millions. The speed of it was unbelievable.”

While Springer expressed a sense of unease about upending the lives of strangers, she remained pragmatic about the situation, citing a popular internet adage: “When you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.”

She emphasized that she acted without malice and was entirely unaware of the pair’s identities or personal circumstances. “I was just a witness,” she said. “Everything that happened after that was a result of their own actions.”

Under intense public scrutiny, Astronomer announced an internal investigation into the matter. By July 19, Byron had resigned as CEO. At the time, Cabot’s future as the head of human resources remained unclear.

A member of Coldplay’s touring crew confirmed that the viral moment was entirely unscripted. The “Kiss Cam” selects fans from the crowd at random, and no one on the production team anticipated that this specific couple would become a global media sensation.

“They probably did the math and figured the odds of appearing on that giant screen were incredibly slim—maybe two in 50,000,” the crew member noted. They added that the couple’s panicked reaction to being spotted is likely what fueled the fire.

As for Springer, she hopes the incident serves as a cautionary tale for those who gamble on the perceived anonymity of a crowd.

“I hope their partners can move past this and find the happiness they deserve,” she said. “In a way, I hope my video ends up being a blessing in disguise for them.”