Can a light-skinned couple have a dark-skinned child?

My wife and I are both light-skinned and we have four children. Three of our children are light-skinned but one is dark-skinned. Did my wife cheat or can light-skinned parents give birth to a dark skinned child? Eddy

Dear Eddy,
Our skin, hair and eye colour are determined by how much black pigment (melanin) these areas contain. The amount and type of melanin passed on to a baby is determined by a number of inheritance factors (genes), with contributions from both the father and mother.
Since parents also receive colour inheritance genes from their parents hence making up a pool of genes that may randomly be inherited, a child may not have the same colour hue as the parents but a colour hue of relatives in a past lineage.

Sometimes, a black couple can have a white child among the black children because along their line there was a white grandparent whose genes for colour may have laid dormant. Also, white parents in whose line there may have been a black relative can get a black baby.
It is not true that offsprings always have to resemble living relatives to compare and contrast with to help make parentage deductions from. However, if you still have doubts about being the father, you can secretly have a paternity test done. The child or the mother finding out that you want to or have done a DNA test can bring unrest in your home, especially if the baby is yours.