An academic who became a viral sensation when his two young children crashed his BBC interview has marked the seventh anniversary of his unexpected rise to fame.
Political analyst Robert E Kelly had been speaking to the corporation in a segment about North Korea in 2017 when his daughter Marion, then four years old, burst into the room with her little brother James hot on her heels in his walker.
The hilarious clip, which has since been viewed millions of times on the Internet, shows Professor Kelly, a professor of political science at Pusan National University in South Korea, walking through and ignoring the chaos behind him as his wife Jung-a was rushing. to the room to take out his excited children.
Seven years later, the father-of-two, who became known as ‘BBC dad’ after the calamitous clip, re-shared the video and posted new photos of his rapidly growing children to mark the occasion.
The doting father posted photos of the family celebrating Marion’s 11th birthday today, along with pictures of them celebrating Christmas and walking near their home.
Robert E Kelly has shared photos of his adorable children seven years after they shot to fame by crashing his BBC interview. Pictured: Marion cuts a cake for her 11th birthday while James watches
Professor Kelly takes a selfie with his wife Jung-a and children Marion and James
The political analyst shared this photo of him walking with his son James on Sunday morning.
He also posted a photo of him and his daughter Marion while they were hiking in the hills of South Korea.
Sharing a clip of the famous interview on So here it is again, with some recent family photos in the thread below.’
She then posted four photos of her family celebrating Marion’s birthday, with the 11-year-old concentrating while cutting a cake, as well as one of Robert and James walking in South Korea.
He wrote: “These are from Marion’s birthday party today, and James and I walked around this morning.”
This was followed by four more photos, one of him and Marion walking today and three taken during Christmas last year.
In one of them you can see the children posing for a photo with Santa Claus while in another they treat themselves to an ice cream.
He added: “Another hiking photo and some Christmas 2023 photos.”
Since the viral clip, Professor Kelly has kept his social media followers updated with the adventures of his kid-making antics.
Last year he revealed Marion was learning to play the flute, while James won a football trophy in addition to his hobby of “causing trouble”.
The doting father also shared a photo of Marion and James receiving a visit from Santa Claus during Christmas.
In another photo, Professor Kelly can be seen smiling while Marion and James eat ice cream in a cafe.
In another image, Marion can be seen wearing a pink and white hanbok while posing with her mother Jung-a.
In the sweet photos posted in September, Professor Kelly’s angelic children looked like butter wouldn’t melt as Marion held her flute dressed in her school uniform and James held his trophy.
The father-of-two also shared a photo of the brothers kissing their mother, who also appeared in the hilarious video when she ran into the room to get them out, on each cheek.
Writing about what his little ones are up to, Professor Kelly said: “Marion had a flute performance the other day. She got really excited. And James, well, he’s good at creating trouble.
Posting snaps of James on the pitch, he added: “Okay. Here’s James with his football team. So he’s not just a troublemaker.
On the sixth anniversary of the interview he said: ‘Thank you again to everyone who follows me (for) the video. My family and I were flattered by your kindness.
After the interview became an Internet sensation, Marion and James even became the stars of a cartoon show.
Marion became Mina, James became Jack and their father is a UN official, but the family is instantly recognizable and their mother is a yoga teacher, just like in real life.
But the series creator has developed the character of Marion/Mina and has her solving crimes and following her father to North Africa on the trail of a gold thief.
In 2018, Robert explained on Twitter how the “strange” experience made the family “happier,” helped him empathize with his fellow parents, and made his and his wife’s bond with their children “even closer.” “.
Kelly had forgotten to close her office door during the interview, which meant the children could get in.
The parents did not punish the children for interrupting the interview, as they were too young to understand that they had done something wrong.