British mother Catherine Howarth, 35, has Nigerian blood and her husband Richard is Caucasian. When she gave birth to their first child three years ago in July, the baby had blue eyes, pale skin color and no physical traces of his mom's heritage, except perhaps the hair.
Baby Jonah surprised his parents but the same thing would happen again when Catherine gave birth to second child, Sophie, in March 2016. Just like her big brother, the baby had Caucasian features, making Catherine the first African-American mother to give birth to children with pale skin color twice.
Daily Mail presented photos of Catherine and Richard's kids. The parents said they do receive double takes whenever they are with their children, especially when they learn that Catherine, who works as a financial analyst, is their mom.
"I do get tired of being stopped in the street by people asking if I'm the nanny," Catherine told the news outlet. "People seem to find it hard to understand how I could give birth twice to white children."
Doctors have also attested that the babies are not albino, according to Daily Mirror. Catherine knows that her heritage is purely Nigerian and she has no Caucasian genes.
A possible explanation, however, could be that she possesses dormant or recessive genes that became active once she had children. "It is likely there is a white gene somewhere in the woman's remote ancestry and due to an evolutionary throwback -- known as atavism -- this trait has suddenly reappeared," molecular geneticist Colleen Lynch told Daily Mail.
Experts are not shocked that a woman of African-American descent with a Caucasian husband would have children with blue eyes and pale skin color. Genetics professor Ian Jackson said biracial couples have "one in four or even one in two" chances of having kids with purely fair skin. In other words, it is rare but it can happen.
