"What a hypocrite": Ex-Astronomer HR Kristin Cabot slams Gwyneth Paltrow for her reaction after Cabot's Coldplay kiss-cam scandal with Andy Byron

Kristin Cabot, the former head of HR at Astronomer, publicly criticized Gwyneth Paltrow over the actress’s response to Cabot’s viral Coldplay kiss-cam scandal involving Astronomer CEO Andy Byron. Cabot addressed the controversy in a recent interview with The Times, reflecting on how the incident upended both her personal and professional life over the summer.

Cabot resigned from her role after she and Byron were unexpectedly shown on Coldplay’s kiss cam during a concert. The moment quickly spread across social media, becoming one of the most viral clips of 2025.

In the aftermath of the scandal, Astronomer attempted to reframe the situation with humor by hiring Gwyneth Paltrow as its “temporary spokesperson” in an online promotional video highlighting the company.

The move drew widespread attention, particularly because Paltrow is the former wife of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, adding another layer of irony to the already high-profile moment.

According to The Times, Cabot was deeply hurt by Gwyneth Paltrow’s decision to poke fun at the scandal. She told the publication how she got rid of all Goop products she owned, distancing herself from the wellness brand she once admired.

“I was such a fan of her company [Goop] which seemed to be about uplifting women…And then she did this. I thought, ‘How dare she after the beating she got for all the conscious uncoupling stuff.’ What a hypocrite,” Cabot told the publication.

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What did Gwyneth Paltrow say in the Astronomer video uploaded after Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot's kiss cam scandal?

Gwyneth Paltrow (Image via Getty Images)

In the wake of the viral Coldplay kiss cam scandal involving then-Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and former head of HR Kristin Cabot, Gwyneth Paltrow featured in the data orchestration company’s tongue-in-cheek video response to the scandal.

The clip, uploaded by Astronomer to X on July 26, 2025, appeared to lean into public curiosity while deliberately sidestepping the controversy itself.

In the video, Paltrow introduced herself as a temporary spokesperson for the company, framing her appearance as a lighthearted intervention on behalf of Astronomer’s workforce.

“Thank you for your interest in Astronomer. Hi, I’m Gwyneth Paltrow. I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300 plus employees at Astronomer,” Gwyneth Paltrow said.

Rather than addressing the kiss cam incident directly, Paltrow humorously suggested that the public’s sudden attention stemmed from curiosity about the Astronomer’s business operations.

“Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days, and they wanted me to answer the most common ones. Yes, Astronomer is the best place to run Apache Airflow, unifying the experience of running data, ML, and AI pipelines at scale,” Gwyneth Paltrow added

She continued by portraying the spike in attention as a welcome, if unexpected, interest in the company’s core mission, expressing enthusiasm over what she described as a newfound focus on data workflow automation.

“We’ve been thrilled so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation,” Gwyneth Paltrow said.

For the remainder of the video, Gwyneth Paltrow continued to dodge the scandal by redirecting attention to Astronomer’s upcoming initiatives, noting that, despite the “other questions” the company had received, there was still availability at its Beyond Analytics event scheduled for September.

She emphasized that Astronomer would now return to “what we do best,” highlighting its focus on delivering results for customers and reinforcing the company’s forward-looking stance.

Paltrow wrapped up the video by reiterating her opening line, once again thanking viewers for their interest in Astronomer, bringing the satirical corporate message full circle.

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Kristin Cabot breaks silence after her viral Coldplay concert video

Kristin Cabot breaks silence about the Coldplay concert scandal (Image via Getty Images)

Kristin Cabot, the HR executive who went viral after being caught on the big screen at a Coldplay concert embracing her boss, Andy Byron, spoke publicly for the first time about the fallout from the incident, describing an unrelenting wave of harassment that she said upended her career and family life.

The video, filmed at Coldplay’s July 2025 concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts, showed Cabot and Byron, then CEO of tech firm Astronomer, swaying together before abruptly ducking and attempting to hide from the kiss-camera.

The moment drew laughter from the crowd after Coldplay frontman Chris Martin jokingly suggested they were either “having an affair” or were simply “very shy.” Within hours, the clip spread across social media, amassing millions of views and spawning countless jokes.

During a recent interview with The Times, Cabot explained that while the internet quickly moved on, the consequences for her were lasting. She also added that the fallout forced her to step away from her career entirely.

“I became a meme, I was the most maligned HR manager in HR history..I made a bad decision and had a couple of High Noons and danced and acted inappropriately with my boss (and I) took accountability and I gave up my career for that,” Kristin Cabot added.

Speaking to The Times, Kristin Cabot said she was now searching for new employment but had been told she was “unemployable.”

She said the abuse extended far beyond online jokes, explaining that the harassment never truly stopped and continued to affect her children, who she said felt embarrassed and angry about the situation.

Cabot questioned whether Byron had faced the same intensity of criticism, suggesting that much of the vitriol was shaped by gendered assumptions.

“I think as a woman, as women always do, I took the bulk of the abuse. People would say things like I was a 'gold-digger' or I 'slept my way to the top', which just couldn't be further from reality… I worked so hard to dispel that all my life and here I was being accused of it,” Kristin Cabot added.

In a separate interview with The New York Times, published on December 18, Cabot said she was not in a sexual relationship with Byron and that the two had never kissed before that night, though she acknowledged having had a crush on him.

She described the incident as a lapse in judgment, involving alcohol and inappropriate behavior in a public setting.

The consequences, she said, quickly escalated into fear for her family’s safety. Cabot revealed that she received threatening messages, including one from someone claiming to know where she shopped and warning, “I’m coming for you.”

Kristin Cabot said the threats terrified her children, adding:

“My kids were afraid that I was going to die and they were going to die.”

Kristin Cabot also described the overwhelming scale of harassment that followed, including doxxing, hundreds of phone calls a day, and paparazzi camped outside her home, which she compared to a “parade.”

According to Cabot, she received between 50 and 60 death threats during the worst period of the ordeal.

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During the aforementioned interview with the New York Times, Kristin Cabot explained that despite all the trauma, things in her life have slowly begun to improve.

She also confirmed that she and Andy Byron had briefly stayed in touch to exchange crisis management advice, but ultimately decided that cutting off communication was necessary for moving on.

Gwyneth Paltrow, meanwhile, remains focused on promoting her return to acting in the upcoming film Marty Supreme, in which she starred opposite Timothée Chalamet.

Edited by Shayari Roy