A couple caught cuddling on the jumbotron at a Coldplay concert in July sparking affair rumors were never lovers, a source has told People magazine.
Then-Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, 51, was seen with his arms around the company’s HR executive Kristin Cabot, 53, on Coldplay’s kiss cam during the band’s Massachusetts concert on July 13. The pair immediately covered their faces and hid from view generating rumors that the couple, who were both married to other people, were having an affair.
“Uh oh, what?” the band’s frontman Chris Martin said. “Either they are having an affair or they are just very shy.”
Now, a source close to Cabot has told People that Cabot was “inappropriately mislabeled” as a “homewrecker” by the public.
Cabot and Byron were placed on leave shortly after their embrace went viral, with Astronomer saying in a statement that it was “committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding.”
“Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability,” it said. The disgraced executives resigned shortly after.
However, Andrew Cabot, the HR manager’s ex-husband, revealed that he and his wife were already going through a divorce at the time of the concert.
Though Byron was also married, the source close to Cabot insisted to People that she did not break up his marriage.
“Kristin and Andy had an excellent working relationship, a great friendship. There was no affair,” the source said. “It was inappropriate to be hugging your boss at a concert, and she accepts full responsibility for it. But the scandal, the downfall, the loss of the job—all of that is unfair.”
The source claimed that it has been “hard” for Cabot to leave her home and that she has focused her attention on her family.
“It’s unfathomable to witness what has happened, and how devastating it can be, for not just individuals, but entire families,” the source told People. “These are real people and real families. The way people have taken a lot of enjoyment at their expense—it’s hard to see.”
The source claimed that Cabot had received hundreds of death threats in the wake of the scandal.
“In the first three days after the news broke, she had about 900 death threats on her phone,” the source told the magazine, slamming the “public shaming” of Cabot in the messy aftermath of the concert.
