The former executive captured in an intimate pose with her boss on a kiss cam at a Coldplay concert is calling out two Hollywood stars for making fun of her mortifying moment in the public eye.
In an interview with Oprah aired Tuesday, former Astronmer chief people officer Kristin Cabot criticized Ryan Reynolds and Gwyneth Paltrow for creating an ad on behalf of her former employer that gives a heavy nod to the viral incident where Cabot is seen wrapped in the arms of the company’s former CEO, Andy Byron.
“That was really disappointing to me,” Cabot told Oprah. “Gwyneth, someone whose company is founded on or framed around uplifting women and women’s well-being ... she doesn’t need the money.”
The original video spread widely online, prompting rumors that Byron, 51, and Cabot, 53, were having an affair. Both resigned from their positions at Astronomer.
Paltrow’s company, Goop, is a retail and wellness brand with the stated goal of helping “women in the pursuit of always becoming—curious, expansive, unapologetically themselves."
Ryan Reynolds’ agency, Maximum Effort, produced the Astronomer ad, which stars Paltrow, who was previously married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.
In the video, Paltrow fields typed-out questions clearly related to the kiss cam incident. The questions vanish before they are fully typed, and Paltrow instead talks about the company’s data workflow automation products, a comedic response to the clear surge in attention directed at the company following the scandal.
According to Oprah, Paltrow took part in the ad because she thought Cabot and Byron had both signed off on it.
Cabot said Paltrow had told her that as well.
Though the former exec accused Paltrow of throwing “gas on the fire,” the actress was not the only one to face new criticism from Cabot.
“I don’t want to let Ryan Reynolds off the hook either,” Cabot said. “He produced the ad, he created it, and his wife has just gone through something really similar over the last year.”
Reynolds’ wife, Blake Lively, is suing director Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and running a smear campaign after the two worked together on the film It Ends With Us. Baldoni denies the allegations.
Beyond her frustration with the ad, the Oprah interview revealed new details about the kiss cam incident, including the fact that she and Byron were both separated from their spouses at the time of the Coldplay concert.
Cabot’s husband was also at the Gillette Stadium concert. She was worried they would see each other by accident, but admits what unfolded was much worse. “That would have been better, at the end of the day, if I had just run into him,” Cabot said with a chuckle.
The former Astronomer executive also spoke about the toll the scandal and ensuing public backlash have taken on her personal life.
“For me and my family, what happened was not okay,” Cabot said. “And I felt like by remaining silent, it was somehow accepting what had happened.”
Cabot explained that her bond with Byron had not been physical prior to the concert, but that the two had discussed reporting the relationship to the company board.
“It was becoming apparent to me that we were putting ourselves in a situation where it was gonna get risky from a work standpoint,” she said. “I reported to him. My role was to actually be aware of those things happening at work and flagging when it might cause a problem.”
Byron stayed out of the spotlight since the incident and has not released a statement or agreed to an interview.
As for Cabot, she said she owns the “the poor decision,” adding that she has “paid an unimaginable price for that.”
Cabot also said that she’s not the biggest Coldplay fan anymore.
