On July 16, 2025, TikTok blew up with footage from a Coldplay concert showing a couple on the "kiss-cam" jumbotron screen, who quickly ducked away from sight.
Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Head of HR Kristin Cabot were seemingly caught having an affair, at least if social media is to believe, at that moment, with their reactions justifying the online firestorm that followed, resulting in a public scandal, the pair resigning from their positions, a cheeky new Astronomer ad featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, and memes galore.
The two involved kept a low profile after the events went down, but Kristin, 53, is now finally breaking her silence on the entire story in a new interview with the New York Times.
© XHer marital status
While many quickly deemed the pair "adulterers" for their appearance at the concert together, soon after the scandal broke, Kristin's then-estranged husband Andrew Cabot released a statement specifying that they'd actually been separated for several weeks when it all happened.
"He has been nothing but a gentleman," Kristin told NYT, stating that she and Andrew's divorce proceedings were already underway at the time. She specified that she had two children with her husband before Andrew (who she divorced in 2018), and they were close with their stepfather.
However, what made the whole matter more mortifying was that she found out the night of the concert that her soon-to-be ex was also in the crowd at the same Coldplay show, which made her all the more uncomfortable and seemingly spurred the events into motion.
Kristin and Andy
Kristin explained that she and Andy, the CEO of Astronomer, first met in 2024 when she interviewed for the job, and they immediately "clicked." However, while she did feel the sparks, there was no romantic relationship between them before the fateful night.
"I didn't really get too carried away because he's my boss," she explained, noting that the two connected and grew "close" when they bonded over going through separations from their spouses. As they grew closer, she invited Andy to be her plus one at the Coldplay concert with friends, which she just envisioned to be a fun night out.
© FacebookWhile she contemplated whether inviting her boss out was wrong from an HR perspective, she reasoned to herself: "I was like: 'I got this. I can have a crush. I can handle it.'" That night, she noted, was the "first and only time" they'd kissed, and when she found out her ex was in the crowd, and after some cocktails, they started dancing more intimately.
"I was so embarrassed and so horrified," she said of the moment they appeared on the jumbotron. "I'm the head of H.R. and he's the C.E.O. It's, like, so cliché and so bad." They quickly launched into damage control for the next few weeks, and while she was invited to rejoin Astronomer, she decided to resign. Ultimately, while she and Andy maintained contact after the incident, it quickly petered out and they've barely spoken for the past few months.
© Getty ImagesDeath threats and public vitriol
What made everything worse was the heated public response against her, and not just on social media. Kristin recalled receiving many scathing remarks in public, having her photo taken when out with her children, people referring to her as "that girl" when they see her, and even death threats and phone calls.
"Adulterers are the lowest form of human. You don't even deserve to breathe the same air that I breathe," she remembered a woman telling her at a gas station recently. She noted that her children in particular grew fearful of her life and their own, but after a few months of letting the situation die down over the summer, things began to slowly heal.
© BBCHer kids returned to school, the family found therapists, she even bought a Victoria Beckham t-shirt reading "Yes, It's Me" to poke fun at the situation. She hasn't yet returned to work, however, and still faces scorn from members of her family and friends. "When people turn their backs on me because of this, that's way worse than people yelling at me at the gas station," she noted.
