Viral BBC Dad Professor Responds To Theories, Assumptions About On-Air Video Interview

An on-air video interview has turned Professor Robert E. Kelly and his family viral stars overnight when his kids barged in while he was discussing a rather serious subject live. The video, which is currently at over 85 million views on on the BBC World News Facebook page , 21 million times on the BBC News Facebook page, and more than 16 million views on YouTube also incited theories and assumptions about Kelly’s work and home life that Kelly decided it was time to clear the air.

Talking to The Wall Street Journal, Kelly said the first thing he did was to write an apology to BBC, as he feared he might not be getting more work following the interview. Kelly, who is a political professor at the Pusan National University in South Korea, was tapped to discuss the effects of the impeachment of South Korea President Park Geun-hye. But BBC instead wanted to do a feature about him and his kids, of which he was unsure about people’s reactions about his kids.

"I saw the video like everybody else. My wife did a great job cleaning up a really unanticipated situation as best she possibly could ... It was funny. If you watch the tape I was sort of struggling to keep my own laughs down," he said.

In another interview with BBC World News, Kelly added that his wife, Kim Jung-A, was not aware of their kids raiding the room he was on, and blames only himself. Jung-A was videotaping the live interview when she, and the rest of the viewers, saw the kids interrupting Kelly’s interview. CNET said Jung-A didn’t realize what was actually happening due to the time delay in the live feed.

“She was videotaping the interview so we could have a clip of it, and the kids sort of escaped and I had foolishly not locked the door. It’s really all my fault for not locking the door,” he said.

USA Today said although the Kellys find the experience laughable, there were some assumptions that troubled them. Some assumed that Jung-A was the nanny and not the mother of the kids. Others were also questioning Kelly did not react appropriately towards his daughter Marion when she first entered the room and approached her father.

Kelly said, “Neither one of us are interested in politicizing this or having this provoke a backlash… We’re not really keen on this becoming the subject of some aspiring sociologist’s dissertation.”