Professor Robert Kelly and his wife, Kim Jung-A, have spoken with media for the first time following their children gatecrashing a live BBC interview and generating a .
In interviews with the BBC and Wall Street Journal, the Professor of Political Science at Pusan National University in South Korea took the blame of the on-air embarrassment – he’d forgotten to lock the door during his interview about the .
The couple said they can totally understand why the video went viral.
“We watched it multiple times too, and our families have watched it as well, and everybody we know seems to find it hysterical,” Professor Kelly said.
“We laughed out loud,” Ms Kim said, “but still, we were worried a little bit more.”
Professor Kelly said they were concerned the BBC would never call him again.
“That was actually our first response, a mortification that we had completely blown our relationship with you,” he told a BBC interviewer.
The BBC – however – quickly recognised it had PR gold on its hands.
Professor Kelly persevered with the interview while the children infiltrated his study, hoping the broadcaster had cut away or aired overlay footage.
They hadn’t.
“I mean it was terribly cute,” Professor Kelly told the Wall Street Journal.
“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.”
Ms Kim told the BBC their viral fame had been somewhat stressful, her husband said the pair were “pretty uncomfortable” about the assumption by many that she was the nanny.
“I hope people just enjoy it and not argue over these things,” Ms Kim told the BBC.
“I’m not a nanny, that’s not true, so I hope they stop doing the arguing.”
Professor Kelly also put an end to speculation over why he didn’t stand up and help remove the children from the room.
“Yes,” he told the BBC, “I was wearing pants.”
