Kristin Cabot, the woman at the center of last summer’s Coldplay kiss cam controversy, has opened up to Oprah Winfrey about the fallout that followed, taking aim at Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Reynolds over the ad, which she says added fuel to the fire at the worst possible moment.
In a sit-down for The Oprah Podcast published Tuesday, March 17, Cabot recounted 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.
As the pair tried to duck out of sight, Coldplay’s Chris Martin jokingly singled them out and the footage went viral almost instantly.
Byron was CEO of technology company Astronomer; Cabot was its head of human relations.
Both resigned soon after.
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 hasn’t forgiven either of them for it.
“It was really disappointing for me,” she told Winfrey.
“I felt like Gwyneth, someone whose company [Goop] is based or framed around uplifting women and women’s well-being … she doesn’t need the money.”
She was equally aware of Reynolds.
“I’m not going to let Ryan Reynolds off the hook either. He produced the ad, he created it and his wife [Blake Lively] just went through something very similar over the last year,” she said, referring to 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 didn’t have that.
What followed was, according to her account, a sustained wave of harassment and death threats that fell disproportionately on her rather than Byron, who has since been seen in public 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’ve been working since I was 13.”
Winfrey admitted to her credit that she had been among those who rushed to judge. “I was just like everybody else,” she said.
“I judged that you had made a mistake and that you are 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 humans 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 am devastated by how women treat other women,” she said. “I think we’re just holding each other back. Let’s stop.”
