An HR executive caught on the big screen at a Coldplay concert embracing her boss has described how the harassment has never ended following the viral moment.
Kristin Cabot has spoken publicly for the first time about the video in which she was seen hugging Andy Byron, then-CEO of tech company Astronomer, at the show in July, before they abruptly ducked and hid from the camera.
Ms. Cabot, 53, who was the company's chief people officer, stepped down following Mr. Byron's resignation after the firm announced he would be placed on leave and investigated.
Speaking to the Times, Ms. Cabot said she has been looking for another job but been told she is unemployable.
The video, which showed the pair swaying to music at the concert in Boston, Massachusetts, before trying to hide, quickly went viral, after Coldplay's lead singer Chris Martin said to the crowd: Either they're having an affair, or they're just very shy. It was watched millions of times, shared widely across platforms, and the pair became the butt of many jokes.
Within a few days, the internet had moved on, but for Ms. Cabot, her ordeal had only just begun. I became a meme, I was the most maligned HR manager in HR history, Ms. Cabot told the Times.
In a separate interview with the New York Times, she explained she was not in a sexual relationship with Mr. Byron and the pair had never kissed before that night - although she admits to having had a crush on her boss.
„I made a bad decision and had a couple of High Noons and danced and acted inappropriately with my boss, she said, adding she took accountability and I gave up my career for that.
As to why she chose to speak out now, Ms. Cabot told the Times ...it's not over for me, and it's not over for my kids. The harassment never ended.
Her two children are too embarrassed to be picked up from school by their mother, she said, or to go to sports games.
Ms. Cabot wondered whether Mr. Byron had received the same level of abuse throughout the ordeal, the Times reported.
At the peak of the scandal, her appearance, body, face and clothes were scrutinised and picked apart, with many high-profile celebrities piling on.
Ms. Cabot told the New York Times she received threatening messages after the incident, including from a person who said they knew where she shopped and wrote: I'm coming for you. She said my kids were afraid that I was going to die and they were going to die, and that her family began to dread public spaces and social events.
Things are starting to improve, though. Ms. Cabot has found therapists for her children and she has started leaving the house to play tennis, she said. For his part, Mr. Byron has not spoken publicly, and a fake statement purporting to be from him went viral after the concert. Astronomer had to release a statement asserting that Mr. Byron had not made any comments.
