The odds of Archie & Lilibet having red hair – explained

This week the world received photographic confirmation that little Lilibet, daughter of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, is indeed a glorious redhead. *cheers of joy and celebration*

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A post shared by Misan Harriman (@misanharriman)

The cuter than cute photo was taken and shared by family friend Misan Harriman, and came as Meghan Markle and Prince Harry celebrated Lili’s first birthday at their home in Windsor.

With little Archie also donning red hair, what were the odds that both children would be ginger? Before both of their births, there was much speculation as to what hair colour they would/could have, and we have the odds right here:

Parents	Natural redhead	Non-redhead with gene	Non-redhead, no gene
Natural redhead	100%	50%	0% but will carry the gene
Non-redhead with gene	50%	25%	0% but will carry the gene
Non-redhead, no gene	0% but will carry the gene	0% but will carry the gene	0%

So, as you can see, the odds are now confirmed as 50%. While Meghan Markle is mixed race, this didn’t necessarily mean she didn’t have the MC1R (ginger) gene in her DNA. In fact, her freckles are a heavy indication of carrying the gene, and both Archie and Lilibet’s hair colour has confirmed this. This is due to the fact that red hair is recessive, so both parents must carry the gene for it to be possible to have ginger offspring.

It’s like winning the genetic lottery!