--- title: BBC Dad and His Family Speak Out: 'It Was Terribly Cute' description: Professor Robert Kelly and his wife said they were initially concerned he would never be allowed on TV again after his children barged in canonical: https://time.com/4701257/bbc-dad-robert-kelly-family-kim-jung-a-interview/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-14T18:30:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:41:53.867Z og:title: BBC Dad and His Family Finally Speak Out: 'It Was Terribly Cute' og:description: Professor Robert Kelly said he forgot to lock the door to his office og:url: https://time.com/4701257/bbc-dad-robert-kelly-family-kim-jung-a-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1ba275d18011c61/6988be5686f68e85c86e3d7d/robert-kelly-bbc.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: robert-kelly-bbc og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: BBC Dad and His Family Finally Speak Out: 'It Was Terribly Cute' twitter:description: Professor Robert Kelly said he forgot to lock the door to his office twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1ba275d18011c61/6988be5686f68e85c86e3d7d/robert-kelly-bbc.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # BBC Dad and His Family Finally Speak Out: 'It Was Terribly Cute'  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Mar 14, 2017 6:30 PM UTC  @WSJ/Twitter  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Mar 14, 2017 6:30 PM UTC The family of Professor Robert Kelly, whose children[ interrupted him](http://fortune.com/2017/03/10/robert-kelly-work-home-bbc/) while he was [giving an interview to the BBC ](http://time.com/money/4697929/kids-interrupt-live-skype-interview-bbc-funny/)about the [impeachment of South Korea’s President](http://time.com/4699099/ousted-south-korean-president-expresses-defiance-toward-corruption-allegations/), is now speaking out about the video that made them a global viral sensation — and say they were overwhelmed by the attention. The entire reason the children were able to get into the room where Kelly was giving the interview in the first place, he says, is because he simply forgot to lock the door to his office. “Most of the time they come back to me after they find the locked door,” Kelly’s wife, Kim Jung-A, told the [Wall Street _Journal_](https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-the-children-crashed-dads-bbc-interview-the-family-speaks-1489511175). “But they didn’t. And then I saw the door was open. It was chaos for me.” “I made this minor mistake that turned my family into YouTube stars,” Kelly told the [Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-the-children-crashed-dads-bbc-interview-the-family-speaks-1489511175). “It’s pretty ridiculous.” > [](https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/841705266882199552) Immediately after the interview though, Kelly told the Wall Street Journal, he and his wife were concerned he would never be asked to appear on the BBC again. He even emailed the channel an apology, but the broadcaster just responded and asked if they could post the clip with the children on the internet. They initially declined, but ultimately decided to give consent. After they did so, however, they were overwhelmed; at one point, Mr. Kelly said he had to put his phone on airplane mode. “We stonewalled because we didn’t know what to do,” he said. The couple also did not reprimand the children for interrupting their father’s interview. “I mean it was terribly cute,” Kelly said. “Yes I was mortified, but I also want my kids to feel comfortable coming to me.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4701257/bbc-dad-robert-kelly-family-kim-jung-a-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4701257/bbc-dad-robert-kelly-family-kim-jung-a-interview/"},"headline":"BBC Dad and His Family Finally Speak Out: 'It Was Terribly Cute'","datePublished":"2017-03-14T18:30:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:41:53.867Z","description":"“Yes I was mortified, but I also want my kids to feel comfortable coming to me”","url":"https://time.com/4701257/bbc-dad-robert-kelly-family-kim-jung-a-interview/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Newsmaker Interview","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1ba275d18011c61/6988be5686f68e85c86e3d7d/robert-kelly-bbc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1ba275d18011c61/6988be5686f68e85c86e3d7d/robert-kelly-bbc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"robert-kelly-bbc","caption":"robert-kelly-bbc","creditText":"@WSJ/Twitter","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4701257/bbc-dad-robert-kelly-family-kim-jung-a-interview/","name":"BBC Dad and His Family Finally Speak Out: 'It Was Terribly Cute'"}}]}] ```