Royal Watch News

Royal baby has 52 per cent chance of being ginger

Dec 21, 2012, 12:02 GMT

Prince William and Duchess Catherine

Britain's Prince William and Duchess Catherine's baby has more than a 50 per cent chance of having red hair.

According to geneticists, if the royal couple - who recently announced they are expecting their first child together - both carry the flame-haired gene then the third in line to the throne could be born ginger.

BritainsDNA - which analyses people's DNA - carried out the research that saw more than 5,000 people in Britain tested for their ancestral DNA, and the results revealed 38.3 per cent are carriers of the gene and most aren't even aware.

Alistair Moffat, director of BritainsDNA, is quoted by the MailOnline as saying: 'For the child to have red hair, both parents need to be carriers.

'Princess Diana and Prince Charles must both have been since Prince William's brother, Harry, has gloriously red hair.

'The way the genetic dice fall, that means Prince William has a 67 per cent chance of being a carrier of the gene variant. The question remains, is Kate a carrier?

'As a result of our study, we can say she has a 38.3 per cent chance of being one. If those percentages are averaged, it is 52 per cent likely that Kate and Wills will have a red-haired child.'

Several bookmakers are taking bets on the royal baby's hair colour, with Paddy Power offering odds of 6/1 for the little one to have red hair, while William Hill have odds of 4/1 for the youngster to have ginger locks.