New York (AFP) – Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton on Saturday announced that she has given birth to her first child, daughter Charlotte, in comments promptly retweeted by her proud parents.
“Marc and I are full of love, awe and gratitude as we celebrate the birth of our daughter, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky,” Chelsea Clinton wrote on Facebook.
The message was also posted on Twitter, after the baby’s birth Friday.
The former first daughter, 34, frequently tipped to follow her parents into politics, left her position as NBC special correspondent in August to focus on her pregnancy and the birth of her daughter.
Clinton, who is married to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, had announced that she was pregnant in mid-April.
Even President Barack Obama offered due-date jokes this week while attending the Clinton family’s foundation even in New York, offering his motorcade if needed to speed through the Big Apple’s gridlock to give birth.
Obama played on the preoccupations of two proud grandparents-to-be and their only daughter and poked fun at New York motorists who chafe every year at traffic nightmares brought on by the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
“I was just discussing with president Clinton — if Chelsea begins delivery while I am speaking, she has my motorcade and will be able to navigate traffic,” Obama said, drawing chuckles at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting.
“Actually, it’s pretty smooth for me during the week. I don’t know what the problem is — everybody hypes the traffic…. I haven’t noticed.”
Chelsea Clinton’s parents have made no secret of their joys of becoming grandparents for the first time, with Hillary saying she was calling her daughter “every five minutes” to get an update.
Bill Clinton, the former president, spoke of high hopes for his future grandchildren earlier this week.
“I want them to get up every day and look at the world with wonder and reverence. I want them to respect everyone they meet, whatever their background. I want them to be aware of all the people that make their world and not just the people that they are introduced to,” Clinton told ABC News.
“I want them to really love being alive. It’s my first and whatever other grandchildren I have — that’s what I want. And when they grow up, I want them to believe they have certain obligations to people who don’t have all the opportunities they’ll have and to the larger society.”
Chelsea Clinton began work as a special correspondent with NBC in 2011. Reports of her $600,000 salary sparked a backlash earlier this year, fueling complaints that it was inflated and unfair.
Educated at Stanford, Columbia and Oxford Universities, she runs the Clinton Foundation with her parents Bill and Hillary.
Her mother Hillary is widely anticipated to launch a second bid to become the first woman president of the United States by contesting the 2016 Democrat nomination for the White House.
Her father Bill served as the 42nd U.S. president, from January 1993 to January 2001.
Photo:Travelin’ Librarian/Flickr
