A Nigerian mother gave birth to a rare white infant with striking blue eyes, leaving everyone, including herself, astonished. Remarkably, she gave birth to not one but two white children with blue eyes.
Catherine Howarth, who is of Nigerian descent, is married to Richard, an Englishman of Caucasian ancestry. Their first child, Jonah, was born with pale skin and blue eyes, which is extraordinary given the dominance of dark skin genes.
Catherine recalled thinking that the midwife had given them the wrong child when Jonah was born because he was so white. The miracle repeated when their second child, Sophia, was born with the same white skin and blue eyes as her brother.
A geneticist told Catherine that Jonah was a one-in-a-million baby, given his African heritage and his blue eyes and pale skin. When Sophia was born with the same features, the likelihood seemed even more astonishing, estimated at one in a million.
This rare occurrence surprises many who have never seen an African-American woman with two white children. Medical staff often commented on the children’s unique skin tones during hospital visits.
Catherine frequently faces questions and double-takes when people meet her with her children. She often gets mistaken for the nanny, as people struggle to comprehend how she could have two white children.
Though the exact reason for this phenomenon is unclear, Catherine speculates that there must have been a dormant white gene in her family, which has now become highly dominant. Her family has been black for generations, but this genetic trait unexpectedly emerged in her children.