Twins under the skin but Leo and Hope are born black and white

Leo and Hope were born by Caesarean within a minute of each other but Hope is the image of her white father, whereas brother Leo has the same black skin, dark eyes, and thick hair as his Grenadian mother, Shirley Wales.

Leo was born first weighing 5lb 14oz closely followed by his sister Hope at 6lb 3oz at Dewsbury District Hospital.

Their 21-year-old mother said: "I knew I was having twins, and I knew one was a boy and one was a girl, but I couldn't believe it when the midwife told me they had different skin tones after I'd given birth to them.

"Throughout the pregnancy I'd joked about the babies being black and white. I immediately noticed that Hope was completely white and although they didn't look that different when they were first born, because they both had a bit of jaundice, I could tell Leo's skin was going to get darker and Hope's was going to stay white.

"As soon as I could, I texted all my friends and I said 'you'll never believe it, my babies are black and white' and my phone was a hotline, nobody believed me. I had about 100 visitors in the first couple of days because people wouldn't believe me until they had seen it for themselves."

She found she was pregnant just nine days after conception.

"I knew I was pregnant, I just had a feeling something wasn't right. My birth dad is a twin so obviously I realised I could be having twins but it wasn't until the 20-week scan that the midwife confirmed it. I was over the moon when I found out, I wanted to have one boy and one girl, so it was perfect," said Ms Wales, a hairdresser from Batley.

Now 14 weeks old, little Leo and Hope are developing their own personalities. Their mother said: "They're my little miracles. They are so different, they're absolutely worlds apart.

"I call them Leo the Lion and Happy Hope, Leo gets angry when he isn't getting attention because his sister seems to get a bit more attention from people, whereas Hope is always smiling at everybody all the time."

A spokesperson for the Multiple Births Foundation said: "Two separate eggs were fertilised by two separate sperm. The genes that go into defining skin colour will be different which results in a combination of genes."