Why has Coldplay kiss cam CEO taken the brunt of the shame? It takes two to tango

Scottish Sun

5 days ago

UNTIL last week, I'd never said 'Jumbotron'.
Now it's lodged in my vocabulary like 'furlough' in 2020 — another word I didn't ask for but can't stop using.
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Astronomer CEO and HR director Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot were caught on the Jumbotron
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The Kiss-Cam moment went viral on TikTok, sparking hundreds of memes
The 40-foot truth bomb at a Coldplay concert, beaming betrayal, has become a beacon of hope for suspicious spouses everywhere.
Andy Byron, then CEO of tech company Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company's HR director, were caught on the stadium's kiss-cam in front of 60,000 fans and a fast-growing online audience.
They ducked, smirked, and recoiled like they'd just been caught with their fingers in the biscuit tin. Which, in a way, they had.
It didn't take long for the footage to go viral. Cheating scandal meets Coldplay's 'fix you'? It practically begged for a TikTok remix.
The meme machine kicked into gear, followed swiftly by the sports world, corporate parody accounts, and thousands of strangers handing down their verdict with gusto. Andy resigned. Kristin has also quit. Astronomer went global.
But why is it that in this scandal, all the spotlight — and all the shame — seems to have landed squarely on Andy Byron?
Just like the tango, it takes two. While Byron's wife, Megan, is now forced to suffer global humiliation in silence, we've heard barely a whisper about Kristin's husband, Andrew Cabot — the CEO of Privateer Rum.
Another public-facing figure who comes from a historic upper class family. Another betrayed spouse. Yet for some reason, we can't seem to pull him into focus.
Coldplay kiss cam company Astronomer hires Chris Martin's ex Gwyneth Paltrow for tongue-in-cheek video
Because men who are cheated on rarely make headlines. We simply don't know what to do with them.
They don't fit the narrative arc we've built around adultery — of a woman scorned, rising phoenix-like from the ashes, armed with a revenge body and a pithy Instagram caption.
When men are the victims, they disappear.
Out of sight, out of relevance. Women are expected to hurt publicly and recover fabulously. Men are expected to hurt privately and say nothing at all. But justice doesn't always come via the legal route—because, let's face it, the traditional systems rarely move quickly or compassionately.
Just ask the sub-postmasters, the infected blood scandal victims or anyone who's been subjected to yet another drawn out public inquiry. Often in life, when you've been wronged, there's no trial, no apology, no closure.
There is only the internet. Which means the only justice most people get these days is the one they make for themselves. Fifteen years ago, everyone involved in a Mark Ronson-styled public shaming like this would armour up with PR heavyweights to fight their corners but these days we seem to conflate dignity with silence.
Chaos and vulnerability made us love Ozzy
BEFORE the Kardashians, there were the Osbournes – Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack – barking, bickering and bewildering their way through Beverly Hills.
Ozzy wasn't just the Prince of Darkness, he was the reluctant king of reality TV. 'Sharooon!' he'd wail, slipping on dog poo for the third time, while the rest of us clung to our remotes in gleeful horror.
When The Osbournes launched on MTV in 2002, it introduced a whole new generation to the Black Sabbath legacy – minus the bat heads, but still gloriously unhinged.
He gave us chaos, eyeliner, and a kind of punk-rock vulnerability that made us love him. Ozzy died last week, aged 76, just 17 days after his final show. Even Parkinson's couldn't knock him off stage.
A legend to the last stumble, Ozzy didn't just walk through hell – he did it in slippers, muttering expletives, and made it look cool.
Internet glow-ups however? We're all for them.
Whether that's a new career move, a revenge body, or in Jennifer Lopez's case, an entire revenge album celebrating 'hard sex' and 'soft power' after Ben Affleck allegedly bailed — this is the new court of justice.
It's not always fair. But it's fast. And sometimes, it's the only thing that feels like control.
They say the best revenge is to live well, but did it even happen if it there's not an after pic on Instagram? Welcome to the new generation of justice.
Let us hear Vicky's voice
VICKY Pattison is the latest woman shouting into the medical void in her new investigation, Medical Misogyny on Good Morning Britain.
It revealed what most of us already know – if you've got ovaries, expect to be ignored. Three in five women experience reproductive health issues with a third waiting over a year for a diagnosis.
Why? Because female pain apparently is just part of the job.
Having to date a clueless gender is the cruel joke played on hetrosexual women.
Once you mention cramps, out comes the standard prescription: 'Why don't you just go on the pill?'
I dunno – maybe the fact that it wreaks havoc with your body and your mind?
I was 15 when I was first put on the pill for irregular periods. I gained two stone in a year. 'The pill doesn't cause weight gain,' the GP told me, 'but it can increase your appetite.' IS THAT NOT THE SAME THING?
Since then, I've been a one-woman trial for the NHS: the coil (constant bleeding), the implant (mental health meltdown), the patch (rash of doom).
At one point, desperate to feel like myself again, I begged for the implant to be removed. They gave me an appointment in SIX WEEKS!
Six weeks of spiralling anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia. So, I cut it out myself – not something I would recommend. My GP told me I had 'self-mutilated.'
But desperate women will do desperate things when they are ignored.
Megan Byron and Andrew Cabot have twice been made victim, once by an alleged affair and again when they and their families thrust into the global spotlight.
In some ways they have already received justice online, perhaps they will receive more in the courts.
Until then, the Jumbotron has become the eyes and ears for everyone who's spouse says they'll be out late for a 'work thing'.