Thanks to science, we know there’s a chance Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s child will have red hair. But there’s another one of the Duke of Sussex’s traits that he and Markle’s baby may inherit: light eyes.
The prince himself has blue eyes, and although Markle has brown eyes, their child could still have blue, green or hazel eyes thanks to a little something called polygenic inheritance.
Let’s enjoy a quick biology lesson, shall we? Eye color is determined by two genes—one from mom, one from dad—hence the name polygenic. Each person’s eye color is determined by their parents’ genetic makeup, and they can either be homozygous (meaning their parents’ eye colors match) or heterozygous (meaning their parents’ eye colors differ). Harry is homozygous blue and Markle is heterozygous, because her mom has brown eyes and her dad has hazel eyes.
Even though the brown-eye gene often dominates the non-brown-eye gene (like with Markle), that isn’t always the case. Because Markle is heterozygous with one light-eye gene, there’s a 50 percent chance her and Harry’s baby will have blue or green peepers and 50 percent the baby will have brown eyes.
