Last week, Professor Robert Kelly became an Internet sensation after his two young children gatecrashed his BBC interview. While the Internet exploded with memes, articles, and social media commentary about the hilarious moment, Kelly and his family stayed silent, as they were unsure how to handle all the attention.
But on Wednesday, CBC reports that the academic finally spoke at a press conference held at Pusan National University in South Korea. Kelly, who brought his wife, Kim Jung-A, daughter Marion, 4, and son James, 9 months, to the press conference, said that they are “happy that our family blooper, our family error there on television, brought so much laughter to so many people.”
As previously reported by Jobs & Hire, Kelly was being interviewed by BBC announcer James Menendez on Skype on the downfall of impeached South Korean President Park Guen-hye when his daughter entered his home office. James, who was in his walker, rolled in after Marion.
Seconds later, Kim Jung-A skidded into the room and attempted to retrieve their children. All the while, Kelly remained professional and kept his eyes glued to his screen, while quietly stifling his laughter at his children’s antics.
The clip has been viewed over 80 million times on Facebook and has gotten a lot of positive responses from parents all over the world, with many saying that they could relate to what just happened to Kelly.
At the press conference, Kelly revealed that some media outlets wanted to interview them in their home, but the professor said that they were “unready for that,” but they would most likely do so next week when things are “more normal.” The professor added that they wanted to clear up some controversies in the video.
“Yes, the woman in the video is my wife,” he said. This was in response to those who thought that Jung-A, a yoga teacher, is his children’s nanny.
He also said that his wife did not use too much force in removing the children from his home office.
“It was quite apparent that she was trying to salvage the professionalism of the interview,” said Kelly. The professor said that their children were not hurt and that he wasn’t shoving Marion out of the way—he was trying to get her to go behind his chair, where there are toys and books, in hopes that she would play with them until the interview ended.
As for commenters saying that Kelly probably didn’t bother to stand up because he wasn’t wearing pants, the professor laughingly said, “Yes, I was wearing pants.”
“Someone at lunch asked me today if I was wearing pants…strangers ask me if I was wearing pants,” he said with a smile.
When asked if he worries that his credibility as a scholar will get affected because of the incident, Kelly said that he was “a little bit worried,” but he hopes that at some point, people will know him more for his work, according to Firstpost.
“I mean, this wouldn’t be the first line in my obituary,” he quipped.
Watch the press conference below.
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