Kristin Cabot Rehabs Her Image on Oprah
Kristin Cabot puts herself in the news cycle again, appearing on an Oprah podcast to explain her Jumbotron kiss cam scandal.
****
Could Kristin Cabot just STFU already?
Is this some kind of exposure therapy? Like the cure for the public mortification of being caught on a Jumbotron getting handsy with your boss is yet MORE public exposure?
Kristin Cabot seems dead set on convincing us all that She’s the Real Victim Here. To the degree that she hired a publicist to rehab her image, got an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, a tell-all in the New York Times, and even has the chutzpah to headline a PRWeek Crisis Comms Conference in April on “Taking Back the Narrative.” (Only $875 per ticket to stick your head in the mindf*ck blender!)
Now she’s on Oprah. Because of course she is. I mean, God love Oprah, but I’m beginning to question her judgment after giving us crackpots like Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil.
SOME PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE AMPLIFIED, OPRAH.
But hey, Kristin Cabot has a sadz. And that’s clicks. So sure, whatever.
But, but, it’s DIFFERENT this time! Now Kristin reveals, kinda sorta, and just maybe that Andy Byron lied to her!
Coldplay “kiss cam” executive Kristin Cabot shifted blame to her former boss in a new interview — hinting he lied to her about his marriage status and claiming social media “profited” from her pain.
Cabot, 53, believed that philandering Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, 51, was in the process of separating from his wife when they were seen canoodling at the concert during the viral cheating scandal, she said on Oprah Winfrey’s podcast Tuesday.
“He wasn’t the person he represented himself to be, to me — and lying is a non-negotiable for me,” Cabot told Winfrey. “There was a big miss on honesty and integrity.”
Honesty and integrity?
You know what’s a big miss on honesty and integrity? Enforcing workplace ethics on honesty and integrity as the director of Human Resources while exempting yourself to make out with your boss. It’s a bad look. Or as you might say, a “big miss.”
In the “process” of separating? Was “going to” leave? As in, he had NOT separated and had not left? So, it’s okay to lie to his wife, but just not you? Right-o.
‘Silence is acceptance.’
Cabot says she had to speak up for all the people this has happened to. Apparently, Jumbotron victims are legion. For every HR director who has ever publicly had their boss feel up their boobs while enforcing codes of conduct for others, Kristin Cabot feels your pain. She is your voice.
Why are we validating Kristin Cabot’s perspective, Oprah?
And dressing this crap up like women’s empowerment?
If Kristin Cabot had made good on her crush (and we don’t know for certain that she hadn’t before that point) — and conspired in the abuse of Andy Byron’s wife — would she still get feminist points? If the giant Jumbotron of Schadenfreude hadn’t lit upon the couple at that moment to freeze this budding affair in its tracks, would we still be all “You go, girl”?
Of all the people in this messed up world to platform, why this corporate suck-up and her raging entitlement?
Yes, death threats and harassment are unequivocally wrong. But do not conflate those criminal acts with judgement of Cabot and Byron’s behavior. We’re all sick to death of Rules for Thee and None for Me.
Really, this is all Gwyneth’s fault.
I enjoy dunking on Gwyneth Paltrow as much as the next person, but it does seem a tad opportunistic to call out Paltrow as some kind of mean girl. Apparently, Cabot was very hurt that Paltrow and Ryan Reynolds made an ad for Astronomer, the company where Byron and Cabot worked. How dare Gwyneth! How dare Ryan! Who said Astronomer could profit from a video seen over 300 billion times? If anyone is allowed to profit from infamy it should be Kristin Cabot! She’s not going to stand for this!
“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.”
“I don’t know why she felt she needed to throw gas on the fire and get involved in all of this,” Cabot said.
She went on to say, “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.” (Cabot was referring to Lively’s legal battle with her former It Ends With Us costar and director, Justin Baldoni, claiming sexual harassment and retaliation, which he has denied.)
Paltrow hasn’t publicly addressed Cabot’s comments. But Winfrey said that she spoke with Paltrow and Paltrow told her she only participated in the Astronomer ad because “she was told that you and Andy Byron had signed off,” which they had not, Cabot said.
Cabot said Paltrow had “communicated that to me as well.”
Winfrey then noted Paltrow had emailed Cabot but Cabot had not responded.
Well, Kristin, if you consented to the publicity, it wouldn’t suit the victim narrative, now would it?
How awkward.
The Astronomer ad Paltrow made doesn’t even mention Cabot. It basically just tells people to back off and let Astronomer get back to its actual business.
I cannot imagine what a raging narcissist Cabot is to make that a personal attack on her. Even if she’s an unwitting OW (which I doubt), she still created the PR crisis by canoodling with Byron in public when she was the head of HR. Astronomer had the right to respond.
Also, admitting she let a man touch her breasts in public the first time he ever touched her isn’t the defense she thinks it is.
Right? It’s not a flex. And again she was the HR director! This seems to get glossed over. They didn’t sh*tcan her because of home wrecker judgement, they sh*tcanned her over her lack of professional ethics, which could blow back as lawsuits. She acts as if Astronomer is being unreasonable.
Oprah had a big miss here. The old rule from our parents still applies here….don’t do anything in public you wouldn’t want on the front page of he newspaper. Or in today’s world, all over the internet. Both of them were the pathetic rules aren”t for me sort. Ugh.
Just another cheater playing the victim card…who here has not seen that play a hundred times? And the woman card, as if Gwyneth should excuse Cabot’s disgusting behavior because of the sisterhood of estrogen supply. Me and my ovaries stand in sisterhood support of the betrayed wife, and also the betrayed husband. And all the low-totem people at the company who were expected to behave according to HR policy while the chiefs cavorted and misbehaved.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch the interview, so possibly there is some “nuance” I missed. But I doubt it.
“All we did was kiss!” and “It was our first time!” are old cheater canards. Either she has a really bad publicist or she isn’t listening to the one she has.
Right? Anyone above the age of 19 knows that when a man says “my wife doesn’t understand me” (or any version of that) he is a liar and a cheat. That is where Cliches come from.
Yes women cheat too and they have their own Cliches.
Their wives understand them all too well!
Some friends and I used to drag these guys for kicks, especially the famous or rich married ones. We had all these running jokes and cues about old pervs that got boiled down to single gestures or soundbites that would send everyone into choking fits.
Like the “mud flaps” joke one friend made after being hit on by a series of fifty-something married master-of-the-universe types. She thought if they ever succeeded with college-age women, it must be because they had stray jewels and cash lodged in their jowls, dewlaps and belly-flaps. After that, all anyone would have to do to make everyone bust a gut was to pantomime a “pincer” gesture like pulling a gob of hair out of a dirty drain or a gesture like “lifting a flap” and “peeking inside.”
Another friend would expressionlessly accept the scribbled phone numbers and business cards that got shoved at her on the street or everywhere else but only so she could call them up and play one of those banned Beavis and Butt-Head “Final Word” talking insult voice boxes that had short recordings saying things like “A$swipe” and “Heh heh heh, this sucks.”
It’s curious because we weren’t typically a bitchy group– never slapped down, never made fun of the meek or vulnerable. We also didn’t look for trouble and weren’t casting suspicion every which way, only on the blatant boundary-encroachers. But the frustration and anxiety over never being able to go anywhere unaccosted or never being left alone to work hard and build careers was cumulative and needed a pressure valve.
Gallows humor certainly beats chronic jitters and existential angst over the woeful state of our species. It also detoxifies memory a bit since I still laugh when I think of our antics back in the day despite the fact we all had some traumatic near-misses at the time.
The first time I encountered one of these goats was in a grade school cafeteria. I was subbing for one of the women, so it was the first time I had worked in this school. The school psychologist came up behind me behind the serving counter and put his hands on each of my arms and got too close, while making an “innocent joke”. I jerked my arms back and flipped around. He backed off and said oh I didn’t mean to scare you. Jerk.
I went to the principal (who was an acquaintance through my work in the PTA and told him what happened, and that I didn’t want him ever talking to my son. As far as I know he never did. Back then they had to tell you and get your permission if they thought it was needed.
Dude was likely only about 50ish, but I was 25, so he was an old goat to me.
I went to work at another school after that full time. It never happened again. I don’t know if word got out, or if that was just an anomaly. I like to think the second.
Given who the principal was, I am betting he had a little talk with the goat. Schools do not like publicity. Not even back then.
My son went there through 6th grade, before he went on to Jr. High. He never had any trouble.
I don’t remember anyone from my friend group judging or commenting on people’s ages until we found out they were preying on the young. Then these people would suddenly looked decrepit and became fair game.
It was all relative.We also dragged on men who made ageistic, objectifying cracks about older women, even if they were doing it to comparatively “flatter” us on our “glowing youth”– retch.
Don’t these old goats (lol) understand that any young woman who plans to live past age forty is going to take cracks like that as proactive negging?
I wish my kids had gone to a school like the one your son did. Instead the local district ended up all over the headlines for harboring a credibly alleged serial child m*lester on staff for a dozen years and then shielded another predator (middle school counselor) who was outed a short time afterwards.
I later learned from townie friends that the entire district was a sleazy cheater hotbed which I think explained why staff almost uniformly defended the child abusers. I figure the cheaters on staff must have had some kind of “mutually assured destruction” pact to keep each others’ secrets that created a cozy protected place for child r*pists to nestle in.
My guess is that, wherever you find an entrenched gaggle of cooperative adulterers, the nest of child predators won’t be far away.
I was surprised as time went on how many things school systems kept secrets. Most of my sons teachers in grade school were older, and honestly I loved them. They were strict but good teachers. I really don’t think this guy fit in at all.
You are right though, I likely wouldn’t have even thought of this guys age if he had not acted out.
As my son got older I could see the deterioration of the school system, in terms of mgt. I don’t think it was all the schools fault, lots of variables.
I do think it was over all a good system for the years we were involved, but I could see the changes over time. I do think school systems and really most entities try to hide too much. If the stuff that hits the news was not hidden, it wouldn’t become big issues. It always comes out.
My email notification suggested an AI response to your last comment that I have to share because– haha shriek yikes:
Hi,
Yeah, the power imbalance is the whole damn point, especially when the media tries to frame it as just two consenting adults.
That school story is wild. Glad you handled it right away.
“Media”? “Two consenting adults”? Gee, could it be that HAL from Space Odyssey was a chump? :O
Speaking of variables in the decline in public education, my dad was pretty alarmed about it. He came from a generation that saw some of the darkest manifestations of ignorance and made a lot of effort to understand why education was going off the rails. Unfortunately, he died before Diane Ravitch published her seminal Reign of Error which pretty convincingly chalks it up to incremental privatization/neoliberalization of public institutions and resources. I think he would have appreciated Ravitch’s perspective.
Paltrow thought she had Cabot’s permission, just like Cabot thought she had Byron’s wife’s permission.
See how that works?
LOL. Except Patrow and Ryan emailed her. There were receipts. Funny all the same!
Oh, I didn’t realize Paltrow e-mailed her *before* filming the commercial and Cabot didn’t respond. That is damning!
The lack of shame and humility is appalling. I found the lack of accountability to be deeply distressing, providing my children on one hand an excuse exploited by their father for his behavior and also the dissonance of what was clearly wrong. Then to turn it around and point the finger at the wife, as if she’s in the wrong, is despicable. She will never believe what she did is wrong and is teaching her children it’s ok to be a cheater. My children know exactly what I feel about that behavior–no excuses! There are no degrees of “allowable” cheating–they were BOTH married. End of discussion.
It just demonstrates that these people are devoid of any virtue I value. Cut them dead and move on & try to drown out their miserable voices.
Omg – this just
Reminds me of Monica’s Lewinsky claiming she is a victim of “bullies” and the unfairness of it all! I dont know why she gave this interview but I do like the fact that the consequences got out of control. They didn’t predict that! It’s a little like watching Jerry springer when you feel relief your life isn’t that crazy! But I’m comforted by the fact that these other women who thought they could control the consequences aren’t doing well.
That wasn’t Lewinsky’s first affair with a married douchebag. Even Backlash author Susan Faludi did violent eye rolls when Lewinsky went on a junket claiming to represent feminism.
Meanwhile I was younger than Lewinsky when I reported a predatory employer to police. One close friend was 17 when she responded to pressure from the infamous head of a French modeling agency by wriggling out of the trap and ceasing to work in France. She told me she’d clean toilets before she’d give in to these creeps. We and our other friends were especially scathing towards married men on the prowl, no matter how rich, famous or powerful they were. It was a point of honor (not puritanical piousness) to tell them to f*ck off despite having far less family resources than Lewinsky to fall back on.
We’ve all known women (and some men) who were preyed on despite not being “game.” Our sympathy was reserved for those people but not the eager beaver Lewinsky types who are unfortunately dirt common in arenas involving power, wealth and fame. They may be heavily fantasy driven but still know exactly what they’re doing and, if you try to warn them that they’re being exploited, they’ll throw you under the bus in a second. We were all annoyed by these kinds of people for throwing blood in the water and emboldening the pervs.
The pervs still deserve the lion’s share of blame but fortunately blame isn’t finite and there’s plenty to go around. Sentencing the “bag man” to a few years in jail doesn’t subtract from the gun-toting heist man’s sentence.
I believe in cases like this, it is still important to point out that there is a massive power imbalance. If I remember correctly, that barely happened during the early debates in the 1990s (which subsequently made it much easier to heap blame and shame upon actual victims of harassment and coercion). Doesn’t change the fact that she was quite clearly a willing participant.
Had Lewinsky been an actual child or an adult but living in dire straits– especially a poor single mother or someone sending money back home to a third world country to support their endangered family– or if she’d been coerced with some kind of implicit threat to her future work prospects or welfare, I would have unabridged sympathy.
I also think disabling mental health issues can make people more vulnerable to power imbalances even without coercion. I once stood up to coworkers and stopped them from disparaging a woman who got a particular promotion I was promised because she slept with the manager and I ignored his overtures. She was around my age, came from a wealthy family, had gone to a better school than I had but she reeked of clinical depression and anxiety. After she got the job, she looked downright suicidal and quit and disappeared soon after.
In that case, the creep wasn’t married and didn’t even have a girlfriend as far as anyone knew so, though he was much older, this woman might have delusionally believed a tryst could lead to an actual relationship and safety from whatever demons and dangers she obviously felt haunted by. I know what faux-fragility looks like but she wasn’t cos-playing the pallid simpering virgin. Instead she reminded me of a trembling, traumatized chihuahua. She also had no idea she was bumping me out of a job.
So different than Lewinsky who, before she interned for BC, told the chumped wife of her first married long term AP that she was “…going to the White House to get my presidential knee pads.”
Monica Lewinsky was a 22-year-old intern and Clinton was the President of the United States and married, but OK, slut-shame her.
Agree w/ you CD. At 22 I read my horoscope every day, believed in magic and drank peppermint schnaps. Would I have slept with the very charming but slightly married President of the United States? I hope not. But I might have.
Point being that the responsibility and power in that situation was his.
I don’t see this in the same way as Monica Lewinsky at all. She was a young intern and Bill Clinton was the President of the United States. Bill was literally all powerful AND married. He’s the big boss here and fully accountable under pretty much all HR rules and s*ex*ual harassment. Attacking Monica and letting creepy Bill get away with everything and Hilary “standing by her man” was ridiculous and now as a Chump, it didn’t age well even a little. Monica certainly wasn’t perfectly innocent — but the entire set up by Bill was predatory. Then Monica did get lampooned and attacked and bullied (not ok for anyone).
In the case of Kristin Cabot… she was SENIOR leadership — DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES. She knew better. She was no intern and was married (twice?) with kids. Separated or not, both she and the CEO knew what they were doing was a clear violation of HR and would never have allowed anyone at Astronomer to get away with what they did. But they were both so flagrant and narcissistic, they went to a public arena to canoodle. Like really? Who can take these 2 entitled idiots seriously? Kristen is upset about how she was treated but she keeps platforming to stay in the news? Puh-lease
Hi: my comment wasn’t clear. What I meant was that Monica Lewinsky should not be slut-shamed. As far as Kristin Cabot, she is clearly is not an “idiot”, she is articulate and thoughtful. She does not “keep platforming”, the Oprah interview is the first time she has spoken out.
So the PR interviews Kristin did in The NY Times and People aren’t platforming? Where is your sympathy for the actual wife of the CEO FW? Maybe you aren’t up-to-date on CN. You may want to read this Dec 2025 post from CL: https://www.chumplady.com/kristin-cabot-fails-to-understand-your-hostility/
Nah. Cabot had a spread in People, the NY Times, and other outlets. She has a publicist who is setting up these things. Oprah is not the first — nor probably the last.
I very much doubt that was the first time or even the farthest things went.
Plus.. she’s put off by “lying” but had no issues with lying to her own spouse until she got caught.
Right?
I would bet money, based on Cabot’s own timeline of being “separated for 4-6 weeks”, that her condo was a F*ck Pad for her and Andy. Somebody internal was about to blow the whistle to the Board of Directors, me thinks. Otherwise, WHY would two Execs plan to request Cabot be assigned a new direct report? That’s not something anyone would do just for having “feelings” for a co-worker. So ridiculous.
I enjoyed Business Insider’s Cabot article yesterday, as it was entertaining: “I can’t find a job!”
Why is Oprah promoting her anyway? I’d assume she’d not go along with a cheater’s pity party theatrics.
Why is Oprah going along?
Firstly… 300 BILLION with a B viewers are entertained by this. Ms. O wouldn’t be where she is today if she turned down huge ratings grabber topics and guests.
Secondly, Oprah herself admitted she was involved as a side chick with married men in her youth. No doubt, she sums that as a “mistake”, too.
The problem with monetising your notoriety whilst concurrently polishing a weapons grade turd is that, overall, it’s just not a classy look.
There is an opportunity to make better choices here, but Kristin seems reluctant to take it.
LFTT
Kristin Cabot says in the interview that she and her husband were living separately and in the process of divorcing. He was at the Coldplay concert too, with a date. And Kristin Cabot’s boss Andy had told her that he also was separated from his wife. So is CN assuming that Kristin is lying? If she and her husband had agreed to divorce and were in the process of divorcing and not living together, and Andy was also separating and getting a divorce, I don’t see a problem other than it was inappropriate professionally, which Kristin Cabot says in the interview was being addressed. I agree that, as the NYT article title says, that this is ritual shaming. Watch the interview.
I get what you’re saying CD (and I know you comment here regularly). There is such a thing as an unwitting OW, which is where Cabot seems to be shifting her narrative to. I believe her that she was separated and going through a divorce and that her husband was already seeing someone else. It’s possible Byron lied to her about his marital status, which makes this more of an inappropriate workplace relationship scandal then an adultery scandal (on her end).
My problem with this is: why on earth is she only saying this now?? And she doesn’t even seem to be saying that directly, just vaguely implying he lied.
If I’d been in her shoes, I’d have demanded him and his wife release a statement confirming their separation within a week. If he’d refused, I’d have released my own statement and tossed him under the bus.
She said absolutely nothing about him making her an unwitting OW a few months ago during her last round of publicity. That seems like a weird thing to leave out.
I feel like she’s just trying out different narratives to see what sticks.
All that said, there are parts of her story I absolutely don’t believe. I don’t believe this was their first date or first time touching and kissing and they’d never slept together. She’s ridiculous for even trying to float that.
Hi Rarity, appreciate the considered response. I don’t think there were other narratives, were there? And I would say, sure, I can see a situation where there was an attraction between them for six weeks but they didn’t act on it until they were at the concert. And if in the aftermath the guy acted like a jerk, well then how would she force him to make a public statement? Like, he probably went back and lied his face off to his wife, no?
CD, here’s her December interview. She says absolutely nothing about Byron lying to her or intentionally refusing to speak with him, only that they mutually decided it was best if they kept their distance:
https://archive.is/20260114032126/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/style/coldplay-concert-couple-kiss-cam-woman.html
A whole bunch of people responded to that with, “Girl, he’s still married and with his wife!” So it fell flat.
Now she’s back again telling Oprah he lied to her and she is the one who stopped communicating with him. Pretty weird to leave that out the first time.
She obviously couldn’t force him to make a statement, but she certainly could have made her own letting people know she thought he was separated back when it happened. So yeah, I’m pretty skeptical that she’s only just now implying she’s an unintentional OW.
Yes, I assume she is lying, because her story keeps changing. Everything was above board, everybody was separated, yet they still dove for cover when the camera was on? The concert was their first kiss, yet he’s groping her breasts?
There isn’t any manner of “addressing” an inappropriate relationship at work, except to stop it. She knows this; it is a central part of her professional role. The rules are not different for her. The company had no idea this was going on, so — how it was “being addressed?” That’s also a lie.
She twists reality to solidify her victim position. She has zero similarities with Blake Lively’s situation, for example, but is drawing that connection so that she can lump herself in with sexual harassment victims! This is low!
The ad didn’t even mention her name or anything about this situation — but it made her feel attacked. Nonsense.
It’s gross that she talks about how disruptive this was to her children, when she is the one who put them in this situation — and continues to do so. She says she was separated from her husband “weeks” before. Okay. WEEKS before? You have underage kids, and you can’t take a beat to focus on them smack in the middle of family upheaval? No? Gotta go out on a date with your boss!? This is not ritual shaming; she created this whole mess for herself.
I firmly believe she brought Byron to the same concert her husband would be at so she could “accidentally” bump into her husband and his date and make him jealous. It’s too damn weird them both being there (and apparently not too far away from each other) when neither of them even likes Coldplay.
Exactly. Worse, she sets women back with the whole “I had a crush on my boss” thing. There’s a reason creating a sexualized work environment is against HR rules and the subject of many a profitable lawsuit. It creates a look of (or is) favoritism. We don’t need anyone to solidify the sexist narrative that women sleep their way to the top. Putting the boss’s hands on your breasts makes you a bad feminist. You don’t get to cloak yourself in victimhood. Actual women are harassed and unfairly shamed. She’s not one of them.
As a former schmuck magnet, I have to agree. A close friend and I were recently discussing all our Weinstein-ish/Epstein-ish close calls back in the day. She said that one of the reasons she’s declined opportunities to go public about some of the high profile predators she encountered (and thankfully dodged) is because she’s only now beginning to recognize and process her rage over all the women who either set her up to be targeted as a teen, turned a blind eye or failed to warn.
We both agreed that there’s a kind of “spectrum” of MOs going on among women with those on the “less culpable” end staying silent out of fear of retaliation and those on the dirtier end for whom complicity is literally a career track since creeps will “reward” the women who enable predatory behavior and keep the fresh prey coming.
I realized after the conversation that I related to her sense that rage at the actual predators is sometimes easier to process and eventually live down in comparison to contending with “Vichy” backstabbers as you call it. For anyone who counts themselves as feminist, condemning other women for complicity goes against the political instinct to “circle the wagons.” But entire countries reserve more severe punishments for traitors than they do enemy combatants so it seems to be a universal predicament.
Fair or not, traitors of all stripes should probably take heed of that common quirk in human nature. Another example of “wrong but inevitable” hardwired human responses that comes to mind is that, despite the fact that revenge killing is universally prohibited in modern democracies, the main reason the US had to ban corporal punishment in public education was because too many parents would lose their sh*t, march down to local schools and either sh*ot or beat to de*th the offending school masters. It’s just not wise to tread on the deepest primal instincts like parental protectiveness and hatred of turncoats.
I still don’t measure enablers on the same level of culpability as I do perps and understand that adult women who pimp or contribute to the victimization of others probably all have had horror show childhoods. But then so did Ghislaine Maxwell. I just can’t muster any sympathy for adult former victims who end up subjecting others to the worst of what they endured, which is basically every perpetrator ever.
Found the PR bot.
Your response does not make sense.
Sending bots and sock puppets to argue in the comments section is a time honored tactic that is easier and cheaper than ever with modern technology. This poster’s comments struck me as inauthentic given the context and audience here.
Seeing a fervent defense of the OW here, across multiple comment threads, made me suspicious, is all. Especially when the OW’s story is not particularly believable or sympathetic. 🤷
YMMV.
I’m not a bot. Why not address the merits of the argument? Again, watch the interview and decide for yourself.
Oh, excuse me. Not a bot, a sock puppet.
“We’re separated” is a lie you may be dumb enough to believe when you’re 20, but at 50 the excuses are thin.
Let’s keep the discussion civil, please.
I was referring to Cabot. I’ll try to edit to make that more clear.
I’m a real person and a regular poster on here.
Everything about the situation was wrong, both professionally and personally. Two people ducked on the Jumbotron for a myriad of reasons – the job, the spouses (not yet exes), and the children. The only thing I might agree with is if Cabot (female) was shamed and Byron (male) wasn’t. My impression is that we won’t know because Cabot is doing all the talking and Byron isn’t sharing his story.
CN understands that one good reason Cabot shouldn’t be shamed is because she’s not that special. If it wasn’t her, it would have been someone else.
Considering those rumors, there may have been several “someone elses” (allegedly): https://www.chumplady.com/andy-byron-allegedly-a-serial-cheater/
Quelle surprise!
The woman is an HR pro is in her fifties and didn’t know enough to confirm the separation and go through the ethical process at work before getting involved? Even her pretense at naivete is a blatant lie. Zero sympathy.
She says Andy told her he was separated and I believe her.
I watched the video yesterday (not all of it – it was becoming a waste of time). Two things stuck out.
The endless cuts to the audience, who were nodding in agreement or simpering sympathy. Oh, please.
When Oprah referred to Andy or Andrew, the word ‘husband’ was used every time. Couldn’t use ‘ex’, didn’t use ‘soon-to-be ex’ for either one of them. Being separated is not the same as being divorced. If you have to use the word husband, grow up and wait a few months til you can use the word ‘ex’.
Ugh not this beeyotch again. Attention seeking, gaslighting “convenient” faux feminism. Narcissistic cheater playbook of how she’s the real victim here.
She was lying to Andrew Cabot her own husband, no matter what Andy Byron said or didn’t say. Oprah jumped the shark long ago.
How about we just post links in the comments on any sites featuring this woman, directing folks here?
Once again: Do not do anything in public that you don’t want the entire world to see. Full stop.
Dr. Phil was a licensed medical professional for only four of his 21 years under Oprah’s wing. Thanks for all of this, Oprah.
Wait — how is Blake Lively “going through something similar?” She didn’t cheat with anyone. Cabot wasn’t sexually harassed. It’s nuts that Oprah lets that go by unchallenged.
I was on the Oprah Winfrey Show as the featured “guest” which aired April 15, 1992.
I do not like her or trust her.
She asked me, in a very condescending and snarky tone, “Have you been in therapy for a while?” Baited me (I didn’t bite). Lied to me about the format of the show in an effort to set me up to go off, Jerry Springer style. Goaded me.
I kept my cool (because yes, I had been in therapy for a while) and called the offices of recovery author and advocate John Bradshaw after getting home. He sent me a letter agreeing that Oprah betrayed my trust, set me up, was out of bounds and owed me an amends.
Oprah is shady and not to be trusted in my experience. So of course she would host an episode with Kristin Cabot.
Oprah and Kristin Cabot can both eff off.
♥️
I absolutely believe you. The general public is unaware of what a self serving charlatan Oprah has been for a LONG TIME
Yes, I really liked Oprah, then not so much. I don’t know whether she changed, or she was just faking it like our cheaters did.
Oprah has always set off my fakedar, so that doesn’t surprise me. Did you ever get an apology?
Well hold on, if you follow the parallels with your experience (and I’m sorry, that must have been awful), Kristin Cabot is the featured guest here, just like you were. So it’s possible that Oprah’s motives are mixed but, even so, Cabot is in good faith, same as you were?
I wasn’t on Oprah because I was having an affair or a professionally inappropriate relationship.
You have the right to believe Kristin Cabot. I have the right not to, and I don’t.
I own a company and purely from an HR standpoint, she forfeited her credibility.
If she was in good faith her story would be consistent and make sense. If she really thought Byron was separated, why the panic when they were caught on camera? She also insisted that was the first time they had ever been physical, but any fool knows that if a man is cupping your boobs with your very obvious delight and consent, it’s not the first time he’s ever touched you. I’m not understanding why you want to believe somebody who has lied. What is it about Cabot that you think she’s different from any other sleazebag OW? She’s straight out of Central Casting IMO.
Good point, a better OW role could not have been written.
Ahhh, Traitor Logic! I like the idea of “Take Back the Narrative”…really, I do!
I do like it. We are doing it here about the notion of infidelity. Ms. Cabot thinks she is, too.
It’s been a while since I last read about this idiot. So um…questions.
-Isn’t she the one that was driven to the concert by her husband? Not like, wasn’t hitching a ride with her ex, wasn’t in the divorce process (which would be very, very strange to get a ride from that person in…any circumstances, really)…still married to the guy?
-So like…she was still cheating even if he did lie, right?
–Still the person that was going on a date with her boss, right? And not in the cute “my husband runs the family business” Hallmark Channel kind of way. Even if not illegal it’s still the sort of morally compromised thing you probably shouldn’t be doing as the head of HR for a multimillion dollar company. That is the sort of thing that if I were a customer or investor in that company I would start thinking twice about continuing business with them. What else are they not being open about?
-So we have the head of HR for a multimillion dollar company…who somehow didn’t think about doing a background check on her boyfriend…even though she was still married herself…like, I am not an executive or anything, but even I know that there is such thing as a prothonotary’s office.
-She somehow thinks that she’s in the same weight class in terms of fame as Ryan Reynolds and Gwyneth Paltrow and is now able to throw shade at them in public. Um…what? (While I am not a fan of Ms. Paltrow-if her response when asked about what Ms. Cabot said about her was ‘…who?’ I would totally buy one of those overpriced candles she’s shilling by way of high-five).
Do I agree that the media is taking a dimmer view of her than of the other idiot? Yes, absolutely. And we should go after that idiot as well. That’s real. Doesn’t change the fact that you cheated with your boss and you got very very publicly and virally caught.
She had the ability to make it about that, to be a grown-up, own her mistakes, and also say “hey look, we’re not hitting him as hard as I am getting hit. My good name will not recover from this-neither should his.” Instead? “I’m the real victim him (DARVO, anyone?) and the guy that plays Deadpool is mean because he accepted money for a job from the guy that dumped me.”
Feliz Jueves!
I don’t follow much popular news, but the main difference I can see as to possibly give the media a break, is that from my understanding the man in this case is laying low, and not out there trying to excuse himself. If that is incorrect then yes the media is not being fair.
She is pursuing media attention, and media is rarely fair or unbiased.
A cheater lied! Lied?! Really? I’m shocked to find gambling in this establishment.
Both of them are garbage. We all can see that. Cheaters of both genders typically do not stop to think what could happen if and when someone saw them in the midst of an encounter/cheating session. They typically think it will never happen, they are somehow special or immune from all that. A number of my FW’s betrayal objects thought that. When photos, emails or texts ( but he said he deleted them!) ( how could he lie?) came to light, they couldn’t imagine….when someone saw them in a bar or hotel lobby or elevator, or a park, beach, boat ride, movie, concert,show, shopping , etc, they were surprised. They tend to not think clearly or consider consequences. That would be a buzz kill. So they proceed as if these things couldn’t happen. One of his betrayal objects was shocked to learn someone had seen them groping each other in a bar. Another , when it turned out someone who lived very near her crib turned out to be someone I knew, a family member of a family I had known for decades. The public domain is very public these days. If you are in the public domain, consider that whatever you do can be photographed or recorded. Like it or not. Not interested in the BS from either of them.
Not to make out like what they were doing was at all right, but if they hadn’t freaked out when the camera was on them, it would have panned right over them.
Wow, the cliches are strong with this one.
I watched the interview and one thing is for sure, Kristin embodies the smooth polish of a very well spoken HR CPO. No doubt about it; the lady has skills.
But, what she has not yet learned is that she is NOT always the smartest person in the room, and even the average Joe knows… if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… it’s a duck.
Does Kristin really think that 300 billion viewers saw the viral video and jumped to unfair conclusions? It was so fricking obvious that these two love birds were “busted” (finally! a less than softball term used by Gayle King, who understands Chumpdom MUCH better than bestie Oprah), that the first words that came to Chris Martin’s mind were “either they’re having an affair, or are just really shy…”.
Kristin sets the moral template sharing her Mother’s words that “silence is acceptance”, then shifts into high gear DARVO – those internet meanies are to blame for this mess. Heads up, Kristin and all other cheaters, there are millions of cell phones out there that can collect damning evidence, also. Play brazen games, win brash prizes.
Of course, Andy comes out smelling like a rose, and still has his in-tact family. Those in power always do! Have you SEEN President Trump???
The bottom line is, people DON’T believe you, Kristin, and NOT because you are a woman (we don’t believe lying sack of shit Andy either). We don’t believe you because of your ACTIONS and your WORDS. Hey, cuz every high ranking exec plans to go to the Board of Directors and share they have “feelings” for someone and request a new direct report. BULLSHIT! That’s ridiculous. Chumps know, cheaters only go to those measures if they’re already or are soon to be busted!
Really, the fact that the upcoming PR talk is entitled “taking back the narrative”, says it all. This is Kristin’s campaign trail and she is kicking it off with big bangs, OPRAH being the pinnacle. Oh wait, but as Ms. O says, Kristin “made a mistake”. ***Yawn***
Wow! I remember my ex’s affair partner saying ‘I don’t know what to tell you’ when I asked her what was going on and why she thought it appropriate to give my husband a secret gift of an anal vibrator/cock ring when we were still married and living together. He told me he’d told her we were separated and getting divorced. She got to hear his viewpoint quite some months before I did. Whatever the fuck he told her, she still chose to have a relationship with a man who was still very married and living with his wife, even if she believed it was only in the eyes of the law. Imagine being so special you think you trump the law!
You know it’s gonna be bullshit if Oprah is involved.
Stop giving side pieces attention and listening to their 100000 excuses of why they are the victims here and weren’t at all in the wrong.
Just shut up, go away and learn to be a better person.
Is it completely implausible that Kristin Cabot actually *was* lied to and then betrayed by a married guy who spent $250k on OnlyFans?Don’t we know better than anyone what it is to be smeared and not have anyone believe us? Haters back off!
I think CD, even if Andy had lied to her, she was still in the wrong being Head of HR (of ALL the departments to be head of!😆). So I agree with you that some OW can be naieve and foolish etc, but it seems this isn’t the case here. And she seems to keep popping up when people stopped caring a long time ago… it could all go away if she stopped talking!
Both there reactions to being on the Jumbotron suggest that they both knew they were doing wrong. It wasn’t just Andy ducking for cover, fearful his wife might see. It was her too. If she thought he was available, why did she also look horrified and hide? If they weren’t in an affair scenario, they could have just looked happy and cutesy (and done fast talking to the Board of Directors the next day).
Anyway, hugs to you 😘
Mrs Crumpet Chump, thank you for the hugs! Why did she duck guiltily? Well, she says that she knew she shouldn’t be involved with her boss, and she didn’t want her husband to see. It was embarrassing that he was embracing her that way and it was captured on camera. I mean, she shouldn’t have been doing that, clearly a lapse of judgment. Presumably alcohol, emotional fatigue, and let us not forget the power of music were factors.
Still, maybe she was in a vulnerable place emotionally and Andy Byron took advantage of that.
I realized today that the level of hate directed at Kristin Cabot reminds me of how my FW devalued me. He called me stupid and accused me of cheating, and he had a similar disregard for the facts. The tone is similar.
Like Kristin Cabot’s — “detractors” or “critics” are not accurate descriptors, really, they are haters, I suppose the word we have is “trolls”, which is too cute a word for them — at any rate, like them, my FW was hysterical and irrational and full of hate and accusations. That’s why I find the attacks on Kristin Cabot, which seem to tap into a stream of general woman-hating, personally upsetting. The people calling her names and getting so worked up about her seem as untethered and emotional and irrational as my ex.
Worse, just like the masses — according to the Oprah interview, the video has been viewed 300 *billion* times on Internet platforms alone! — the people in my circle were all too ready to support him and disbelieve me. Like Kristin Cabot says, it tapped into something bigger than her. And, people — I believe it was her first sit-down television interview, and she agreed to it in an effort to tell her side of the story and clear her name. Because she was getting so much hate based on assumptions that were incorrect. Fat lot of good it did her, but I can see how the urge to defend yourself would be there. Even though, as did everyone in my FW’s circle, she was being urged to “shut up and go away”. Like Belle Burden, she decided not to shut up and go away. Personally, I did “shut up and go away’ and let my husband’s narrative smother my truth. Guess what, people hated me anyway.
I understand that there are people on this site who were sadistically attacked and taunted by the affair partners, and I can see how that experience would affect how a person would view that video. But the facts don’t line up behind that scenario in this particular case. Our stories are all different. Personally, I feel sorry for the next woman who is preyed on by my ex and I feel solidarity with her as a future victim.
That being said, whether or not Kristin Cabot is an expert liar and con woman, (which I seriously doubt, and so many respondents here are convinced of,) the disproportionate degree of hate and devaluing language is striking and jarring. The disregard for what she says and the jeering and misapplied sexist tropes, applied with gleeful abandon, facts be damned, are jarring. The lack of empathy is weird and I sincerely hope at least her haters treat themselves with more empathy and respect.
My FW used hate and smears as a projection of guilt. And to this day, he has zero empathy for me or for his kids. Why so many women engaged in that same behavior towards another woman (90% of the online insults were from women!) — I’m not sure, but whatever it is, is at the root of our society’s misogyny. I am seriously bummed out by the hate and accusations leveled against Kristin Cabot and the failure to listen to her or believe her in a forum that is meant to champion women.
This is a HOAC-length post, I realize, (ha ha, no shade, I love your long posts, HOAC), but I can’t stop feeling dismayed by the comments here.
I’m so sorry CD… you experienced a terribly torturous time… I can’t imagine what it would be like to have this person who you loved, trusted, committed to, the father of your children, turn so utterly vindictive on you. It cuts beyond the depths. And then to be smeared with it. Being chumped is bad enough. This does certainly seem to be an awful trigger for you. I am sorry. I’m not going to comment any more about the jumbotron thing… we all form our own views and opinions ah, and see it through our own shades of tinted spectacles. I too feel uncomfortable with the level of hate (in general. I am ok albeit amazed at how much hate I carry for my xh’s AP). And assumptions made about what people “should know” merely by fact of their age (e.g. anything out of their teens). We have all lived different experiences and upbringing… some more sheltered than others, some naturally more naieve whilst some people have wisdom beyond their years. I have certainly learned a whole lot now I’m Chumpside, but I’d have had no way of knowing the lies cheaters tell before this. Anyway… I meander… I guess this is just a long way of sending more hugs 😁. And maybe just avoid / ignore the whole jumbotron thing. It will only bring you down. 😔 It’s not our story to tell or champion. Let’s keep our eyes on creating our own new beautiful paths and our own stories into our futures. Hugs,
MCC🕊
I’m not sure- it could be possible, but if she didn’t know, why duck down like that when on camera like she was doing something wrong?
I do find it hard to believe a woman of my own age could be sucked in so badly by such an obvious twat as her boss.
She would at least know company protocol around fooling about with the boss- indescretion is not exactly a power move.
“Could Kristin Cabot just STFU already?” SO with you on this Chump Lady! Why has this person been dumb enough to resurface? If she had a brain in her head, she’d keep a low profile for the rest of her life.
I guess it’s that narcissist thing – any attention is good attention!