Prince Harry Talks His Kids Getting ‘Ginger Gene’ On ‘The Late Show’

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It’s never clear which parents that children will take after, and Prince Harry revealed that he didn’t think that his son Archie, 3, and daughter Lilibet, 1, would inherit his genes for red hair, during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, January 10. Of course, he was wrong! The Duke of Sussex, 38, revealed that he’d anticipated his children baring more of a resemblance to his wife Meghan Markle, 41.

The talk show host also noted how Lilibet’s full name was an homage both to Harry’s mom and grandmother. Stephen had asked Harry if he saw his late mother Princess Diana or Queen Elizabeth when he looked at his children, and he said that he “definitely” felt like his kids took after his mom, before joking about being a ginger. “The ginger gene is a strong one. The Spencer gene is very, very strong,” he quipped.

Meghan holds Archie during a 2019 trip to South Africa. (Henk Kruger/AP/Shutterstock)

Harry revealed that when he and Meghan first started dating, he did expect their future children to take after her. “I actually, really, genuinely thought at the beginning of my relationship: should this go the distance and we have kids, there’s no way the ginger gene will stand up to my wife’s genes, but I was wrong,” he said, before slipping in one quick joke. “Go gingers!”

Archie (right) looks so much like his father (left) as a baby. (Shutterstock)

The revelation about his redhead children came at the end of a lengthy interview where Harry was promoting his new memoir Spare. Given how personal the book is and how in-depth his recent interviews have been, Stephen helped the Duke of Sussex relax a little early in the interview by taking a shot of tequila with him. The interview touched on a number of different topics, including an alleged physical fight that Harry got into with his brother Prince William, and he showed the necklace that got broken during the fight. Despite some of the more serious subject matter, Stephen also did work some jokes in, including a hilarious cameo from Tom Hanks.