Kylie Lang: Kiss cam scandal comments that shocked me most about infidelity

It’s bad enough to be caught cheating, but doing it in front of a global audience who loves a public flogging makes it so much worse, writes Kylie Lang.

Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and colleague Kristin Cabot at a Coldplay Concert in Boston. Picture: supplied

People love a good public flogging, always have, but technology indulges them in a way previous generations never could have imagined.

Instead of being humiliated and abused in medieval pillories, sinners are now figuratively stoned online.

Last week’s exposure of an alleged affair at a Coldplay concert is a gift that keeps on giving for folk who like sticking their noses in others’ business.

Forget Australia lifting the ban on American beef or China increasing its military might, this is the news people keep talking about.

It’s had twice as many social media mentions as the last viral explosion, Jeff Bezos’ lavish Venice wedding, according to analytics company Sprout Social.

I don’t care what happens to the pair involved but I am curious about the comments being made.

Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot on the Kiss cam at the Coldplay concert. Picture: TikTok

If only Andy Byron, then CEO of a billion-dollar software company, and Kristin Cabot, the firm’s HR boss, hadn’t tried to hide after being caught canoodling on kiss cam, then no one would have noticed. What idiots!

And this: if you’re going to cheat on your wife, at least make it with someone better looking and much, MUCH younger. Yes, really.

Being sprung is one thing, but the pair’s immediate reactions – not helped by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin quipping, “either they’re having an affair or they’re very shy” – have ensured maximum impact.

Some have joked it is the most expensive concert ticket ever sold, eclipsing the $302,000 resale of a seat to a Taylor Swift concert.

Mr Bryon, 50, subsequently resigned from his job, while any divorce settlement is bound to be brutal. As for Ms Cabot, 52, it has since emerged she too is married, and as of late this week, also unemployed.

Could a Netflix film be in the offing, some have wondered, given the scandal has the magic ingredients of sex, power, deception and hypocrisy?

Perhaps this explains the public fascination.

In America, and increasingly in Australia, there is a deep loathing of corporate fat cats who appear to flout rules they demand underlings follow.

These high-flyers seem untouchable – until they are brought undone.

Mr Byron’s wife Megan, the mother of his children, is said to be holed up in a home in Maine. She has reverted to her maiden name, Kerrigan, on social media and deleted photos that included her husband.

Who could blame her?

Along with the fiasco in May when French President Emmanuel Macron was pushed in the face by his wife as he was about to get off a plane, this now very public incident has sparked debate about relationships.

Specifically, how much should a spouse cop before they call it quits?

According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, the three key drivers of divorce are communication problems, incompatibility and infidelity – and they are streets ahead of violence, substance abuse and financial difficulties.

As for Australia’s divorce rate, however, it is the lowest it’s been in 50 years.

Latest figures from the institute show there are 2.3 divorces for every 1000 residents, down from 6.3 in 1976 following the introduction of no-fault divorce through the 1975 Family Law Act. The trend is also reflected in Australian Bureau of Statistics’ figures out this week.

One reason is that fewer marriages are occurring.

Another is that the average age at which people tie the knot has risen to 32.8 years for men and 31.2 years for women, suggesting a bit more maturity might be handy in sticking it out when things get tough.

Dr Lixia Qu, senior research fellow at the institute, says marriage has become “a deliberate choice”.

She says many young people live together, without the stigma of years past, so any decision to marry will be a considered one, accompanied by strong commitment.

According to ABS data, however, older couples are less likely to hang in there, with the divorce rate increasing for the over 60s.

Perhaps they realise their time on Earth is running out … why waste the rest with someone you detest? (I predict a book title or at least a bumper sticker, you read it here first)

And so we come to the new median age for divorce – 47.1 years for men and 44.1 for women.

We all have a threshold of what we are prepared to tolerate, in both our personal and professional lives.

Thankfully, most of us get to do this privately, without the judgment of internet strangers.

Kylie Lang is Associate Editor of The Courier-Mail
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LOVE

The can-do spirit of Paralympic swimmer Alexa Leary. The multiple gold medallist has co-written and co-produced a song called Closer, which she says is “full of energy like me”. At 23, Leary is making every minute of her “second life” after an horrific cycling accident count.

LOATHE

Theft from op-shops. Disappointing to see signs near drop-off points that read: “Please do not rummage through or steal our donations.” I don’t blame the cost of living crisis. I blame a misplaced sense of entitlement and sheer opportunism.

Originally published as Kylie Lang: Kiss cam scandal comments that shocked me most about infidelity