*In 2010, a Nigerian couple made global headlines after welcoming their newborn daughter who was born with blonde hair and blue eyes.
“The first thing I said was, ‘What the flip?’ ” said the father, Ben Ihegboro. “We both just sat there after the birth staring at her for ages — not saying anything.”
The proud pop quickly clapped back and rumors and speculation about his child, named Nmachi Ihegboro.
“Of course she is mine. My wife is true to me,” Ihegboro said at the time. “Even if she hadn’t been, the baby still wouldn’t look like that.”
Genetics experts offered three theories about how two Black people birthed a white baby.
- The child is the result of a gene mutation unique to her.
- The child is the product of long-dormant white genes, passed on to her by her parents
- The child may have some kind of mutated version of albinism— and that her skin could darken over time.
“She is beautiful, a miracle baby,” Angela Ihegboro said of her daughter.
Ben and Angela claim they do not have mixed-race ancestry.
Doctors and medical experts have concluded that the couple could be carrying the albino gene.
“This is perhaps one of the most common recessive disorders in Nigeria, and we have to remember that it comes in different forms,” Professor Ian Jackson explained to the BBC in 2010. “In Type 2 we would see creamy skin and yellow hair or light brown, which in some cases would darken with age.”
The child’s father is not convinced.
“She doesn’t look like an albino child anyway. Not like the ones I have seen back in Nigeria or in books. She just looks like a healthy white baby,” Ben later said in the interview with The Sun.
“My mum is a black Nigerian although she has a bit fairer skin than mine. But we don’t know of any white ancestry.
“We wondered if it was a genetic twist. But even then, what is with the long curly blonde hair?
Watch the full interview of the couple via the YouTube clip above.
Meanwhile, inquiring minds want to know what Nmachi Ihegboro looks like today, 11 years later.
Watch What The Had To Say:
