Robert E. Kelly, also known as “BBC Dad” gave a press conference at Pusan National University on life after becoming an Internet sensation. Robert, an expert on Korean politics, got his recognition through an unlikely way as his children hilarously walked in on a real-time Skype interview with the British network until his wife gathered them haphazardly out of the room. Since then, he’s been a subject of various memes and his family has been a touchpoint of many different topics such as interracial couples and even child abuse.
Robert has been accused of shoving his kid violently out of the way as she approached the very desk from which he was giving the interview from. “I was not shoving Marion out of the way. I was trying to slide Marion behind the chair because we have toys and books in the room,” he said.
Another issue that came up was also how his Korean wife was mistaken for a nanny, showing the bias and stereotypes that prevail. Robert and his wife are “bemused” by this but don’t want to harp on it either. “Neither of us are interested in politicizing or having this provoke a backlash,” he said. He further explains how race was never an issue in his family (rightfully so, in any family, we say).
What Robert is doing is taking the situation as an illustration of the struggles of all parents across the globe. “My real life punched through the fake cover I had on television. This is the kind of thing a lot of working parents can relate to.” He also feels that it’s unfit to monetize from what his kids did. He claims that his house has been flooded with phone calls, asking everything they could about the interview, even if whether he was wearing pants. Robert says he was, in case you were wondering.
Robert, for all his knowledge on politics that has made him a staple on BBC, admits that his own accomplishments are overshadowed already by the antics of his kids. “This is now the first line in my obituary.”
[The New York Times]
Screengrab from BBC
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