Robert Kelly, an expert on East Asian affairs, and his family became a viral sensation when his young children sauntered into his home office while he discussed the impeachment of South Korea’s president on live TV.
Kelly and his wife, Jung-A Kim, are now describing how the infamous incident happened.
“It’s a comedy of errors,” Kelly told the Wall Street Journal.
Kelly’s wife and kids were watching the interview from their living room. Kim was recording the TV interview with her phone.
When the couple’s 4-year-old daughter became excited at seeing her father on TV, she ran off to find him. Her 8-month-old brother followed.
Kelly, however, forgot to lock the door of his office.
“As soon as she opened the door I saw her image on my screen,” Kelly said.
Shortly after Kim came sliding into the room, pulling her kids out of the room as she tried to stay out of the live shot.
“He usually locks the door,” Kim said. “Most of the time [the kids] come back to me after they find the locked door. But they didn’t. And then I saw the door was open. It was chaos for me.”
Kelly said he has since had to put his phone on airplane mode due to the number of emails and calls he has received about the viral video.
“I made this minor mistake that turned my family into YouTube stars. It’s pretty ridiculous,” he said.
