Viral 'BBC Dad' Whose Kids Interrupted His Interview Details Working from Home amid Coronavirus
The Internet’s favorite dad is back.
As the world remembers, Professor Robert Kelly became an internet sensation in 2017 when his BBC News interview from home was hilariously crashed by his wife and their two young children, causing the video to go viral.
Three years later, Kelly returned for a new interview with BBC News to discuss working from home due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic.
And similar to 2017, Kelly’s young children once again made an appearance in their dad’s interview.
“Yeah, I mean it’s pretty tough for us as you can see,” Kelly said in the video as he and his wife Kim Jung-A fought to keep their children under control in their residence in South Korea.
“It’s pretty difficult and I put this on Twitter too, that employers who have employees with kids like ours, it’s been very, very difficult,” Kelly added. “I get maybe two hours of work done a day, maybe three with this. We’re fighting with them all the time, they’ve got something to do, they’re climbing the walls.”
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During the interview, the couple’s son escaped from his mother’s arms to run around in the background, while their daughter adorably goofed off beside them.
“It’s just really, really tough,” Kelly admitted. “That’s why I’m glad things are lightening up a little bit because we can at least take them outside so they can use a little bit of their energy.”
The father of two added, “But three weeks ago it was very, very hard because we couldn’t go anywhere and there are only so many games you can play and puzzles you can do before they just run around.”
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In the March 2017 interview, Kelly had been in the middle of discussing the political crisis in South Korea when things went uproariously awry.
First, his young daughter jauntily walked in, followed by their son, who was a baby at the time, rolling in with a walker. Kim Jung-A then swooped in to take the children and surreptitiously close the door.
“I mean it was terribly cute,” Kelly told The Wall Street Journal in 2017. “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. They’re little kids and that’s how things are.”
The political science professor admitted he had conflicting feelings about how to handle the situation when he saw his daughter had crashed the interview.
“As soon as she opened the door I saw her image on my screen,” he said. “Yes I was mortified, but I also want my kids to feel comfortable coming to me.”
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