WASHINGTON: Chelsea Clinton and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, are expecting their first child later this fall. The 34-year-old daughter of former President Bill Clinton and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made the announcement Thursday at the end of a Clinton Foundation event in New York on empowering girls.

There has been wide speculation about a future baby in the Clinton family. Chelsea Clinton said in an interview with Glamour magazine last year that she and her husband were hoping to start a family soon, calling 2014 “the year of the baby.”

Joined on stage by her mother, Chelsea Clinton told a group of young female students that she feels “all the better whether it’s a girl or a boy that she or he will grow up in a world with so many strong female leaders.”

“I just hope I will be as good a mom to my child and hopefully children as my mom was to me,” she said. The former first lady, secretary of state and New York senator, who is considering another presidential campaign in 2016, said she was “really excited” about becoming a grandmother.