Black Couple Who Gave Birth To A Blond, Blue-Eyed Child Calls Her A ‘Miracle Baby’

A couple’s newborn has defied everything that people assume about human genetics. Angela and Ben Ihegboro, a pair from Nigeria based in London, England, were very much expectant of their third child. The excitement was pretty much different for the duo, despite already having two children.

The delivery day came, and everything went smoothly, but not until the couple saw their baby girl. 

Angela and her husband Ben were left surprised as the girl had blond hair, blue eyes, and completely white skin. Ben argued the girl might not be his, but he later realized that even if his wife had been unfaithful to him with a white man, the chances of the baby being born white, blond-haired, and blue-eyed were slim.

Doctors were also curious, & one thing that came to mind was that perhaps the newborn has albinism.

But then, the theory was dismissed. Another was that perhaps the parents had mixed-race ancestry; somewhere in either family lineage, there is a white person. Yet, this wasn’t the case in either of Ben or Angela’s family trees. The third theory is that the girl’s skin is because of a genetic mutation unique to her. 

If this is true, the newborn may pass this genetic trait on to her future children, meaning there could likely be more white babies in the ihegboro family.

With all the different theories, it was difficult for doctors to specify the right one. And with unknown dormant white genes on either side of the family, it was the least likely suspect. That being said, doctors eventually went back and forth between albinism and the unique genetic mutation. “She’s beautiful, a miracle baby,” Angela has said of their baby girl, who they named Nmachi. 

Ben added: She doesn’t look like an albino child anyway. Not like the ones I have seen back in Nigeria or books.”

“She just looks like a healthy white baby. My mum is a black Nigerian, although she has a bit fairer skin than mine. But we don’t know of any white ancestry.” However, Professional Ian Jackson of the Human Genetics Unit at the Medical Research council explained how it could be Albinism, despite the newborn not having all the associated traits or family history of the disorder. He pointed out that both parents might have been carrying a copy of the albino gene that hasn’t shown in either family for long.