Kristin Cabot, the woman at the centre of last summer’s Coldplay kiss cam controversy, has opened up to Oprah Winfrey about the fallout that followed, taking direct aim at Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Reynolds over the ad that she says poured fuel on the fire at the worst possible moment.
In a sit-down for The Oprah Podcast published on Tuesday, 17 March, Cabot revisited the incident in which she and her then-boss Andy Byron, both married at the time, were caught on camera together at a concert outside Boston last July.
When the pair tried to duck out of view, Coldplay’s Chris Martin jokingly singled them out, and the footage went viral almost instantly.
Byron was the CEO of tech company Astronomer; Cabot was its head of human relations.
Both resigned shortly afterwards.
Shortly after the incident, Astronomer released a tongue-in-cheek ad featuring Paltrow, Martin’s ex-wife, produced by Ryan Reynolds’ company Maximum Effort.
Cabot has not forgiven either of them for it.
“That was really disappointing to me,” she told Winfrey.
“I felt like Gwyneth, someone whose company [Goop] is founded on or framed around uplifting women and women’s well-being … she doesn’t need the money.”
She was equally pointed about Reynolds.
“I don’t wanna let Ryan Reynolds off the hook either. He produced the ad, he created it and his wife [Blake Lively] has just gone through something really similar over the last year,” she said, referencing Lively’s legal dispute with her It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni.
Winfrey revealed during the interview that she had spoken with Paltrow, who said she only participated because she had been told Cabot and Byron had approved the ad.
They had not.
What followed was, by her account, a sustained wave of harassment and death threats that fell disproportionately on her rather than Byron, who has since been seen publicly with his wife and has never spoken about the incident.
Cabot was particularly stung by the narrative that she had used her sexuality to advance her career.
“I’ve never been involved with anyone I’ve worked with before this story broke,” she said. “I have been working since I was 13.”
Winfrey, to her credit, admitted she had been among those who rushed to judge. “I was like everybody else,” she said.
“I made the judgment that you had made a mistake and you’re out with your boss.”
By the end of the interview, she offered something closer to an apology on behalf of the public. “I feel bad for us as human beings if that’s what we did to you.” Cabot simply replied, “Thank you.”
Her broader message was one she clearly feels needs to be heard.
“I’m heartbroken at how women are treating other women,” she said. “I just think we’re holding each other back. Let’s stop.”
