An interview about South Korea's political upheaval became one of the most popular things on the Internet on Friday, when the children of professor Robert E. Kelly became the inadvertent stars of his spot on the BBC.
The BBC News video of the sequence was retweeted and "liked" thousands of times, and Kelly won empathy — especially from those who said they can identify with the struggle to be both a professional and a parent in the same moment.
"I think it's awesome that a man can be world class in his field and have a family where their kids feel comfortable enough to play with him," Rob Erickson said via Twitter.
Kelly was offering his thoughts about the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye when his daughter infiltrated the live Skype interview — and in an instant, viewers who had been pondering the Korean peninsula were instead watching the pigtailed girl bop into the room, clearly pleased to have found her daddy.
"I think one of your children has just walked in," the BBC anchor said, prompting Kelly to reach behind him to keep his daughter back from the camera.
Kelly smiled, and the girl settled onto a table in what looks to be his home office in Pusan to have a snack, and all seemed settled. And that's when Kelly's toddler son got into the act, bursting into the room in a rolling walker and making a beeline toward the camera.
