Professor Who Was Interrupted by His Children Talks Viral BBC Interview: “This Is My Life, Man”

The father whose live BBC interview was cut short by his wife and kids has responded to going viral.

Robert Kelly, an associate professor of political science at Pusan National University in South Korea, and his wife told the The Wall Street Journal that the interview (now viewed over 84 million times on BBC’s Facebook page) was a “comedy of errors.”

“She was in a hippity-hoppity mood that day because of the school party,” said Kelly. He added that his 4-year-old daughter, Marion, originally walked in the unlocked door after seeing his face onscreen in another room. Due to Kelly’s back-to-back media appearances via Skype from his Busan apartment, the family had ordered pizza delivered that night and Kelly did his interviews in a jacket and tie, as pictured in the video, while wearing jeans underneath that were hidden from the camera.

Kelly, said he knew “it was over” when he could see on the screen that his 8-month-old son, James, followed his daughter in the room. He described the incident as a mixture of embarrassment, amusement, love and affection. “It was terribly cute,” added Kelly. “I saw the video just like everybody else. It is really funny.”

Kelly’s wife, Kim Jung-A, who can be seen crawling in the background of the viral video trying to grab her kids, says this type of chaos happens all the time off-camera. This, however, was the first time it happened during a live interview.

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“Most of the time he locks the door,” said Kim. “I heard her leaving but I couldn’t find them around me. I started to check the door. It was open. It was chaos for me.”

“My wife did a great job cleaning up a really unanticipated situation as best as she possibly could. … It was funny,” said Kelly. “If you watch the tape, I was sort of struggling to keep my own laughs down. They’re little kids and that’s how things are.”

Kelly told the WSJ he immediately apologized to BBC, but the network asked within 15 minutes if they could post the video online. Kelly and his wife first dismissed the idea, but later allowed it because they felt the clip would show them as a normal family. 

Kelly said the video has caused he and his wife to turn their phones off more often, and there has been a flood of offers from various media networks. They refrain from checking social media, particularly YouTube, but Kelly doesn’t want the embarrassment to overshadow his love for his kids.

“Yes I was mortified, but I also want my kids to feel comfortable coming to me,” Kelly added. “I made this minor mistake that turned my family into YouTube stars. It’s pretty ridiculous.”

Even as Kelly was recording his response video to WSJ, his kids were still seen in the background itching to come in the room and see the camera. “This is my life, man,” laughed Kelly.