Rodham Clinton said on Saturday they were "blessed, grateful, and so
happy" to become grandparents. Their daughter, Chelsea, gave birth on
Friday night to her first child, Charlotte.
Chelsea Clintonannounced the news on Twitter and Facebook early on
Saturday, saying she and husband Marc Mezvinsky were "full of love,
awe and gratitude as we celebrate the birth of our daughter, Charlotte
Clinton Mezvinsky".
The former president and first lady said in a statement: "Chelsea is
well and glowing. Marc is bursting with pride. Charlotte's life is off
to a good start."
The Mezvinskys live in New York City, but the family did not say where
the child was born or provide additional details on her birth.
The news comes as Hillary Clinton deliberates whether to run for the
White House in 2016. She is the leading Democratic contender to
succeed President Barack Obama, her 2008 campaign rival, and has said
she expects to make a decision around the beginning of next year.
The baby has been eagerly anticipated, with the former first lady and
senator for New York calling grandmother her "most exciting title
yet". She even has picked out the first book she intends to read to
her grandchild, the classic Goodnight Moon. Clinton has also said she
didn't want to make any decisions about another campaign until the
baby's arrival, pointing to her interest in enjoying becoming a
grandmother for the first time.
Bill Clinton canceled a Saturday fundraising visit to Denver, for
Democratsrunning for the Senate and governor, but he called in to an
event for the embattled Democratic Senator Mark Udall to deliver his
11-minute speech by speakerphone.
"I hope I get an excused absence," he told the crowd. "You all know my
family just got a little bigger, and I figured I should stay home
where I'm really needed."
Clinton has been eager to become a grandfather. During an event with
former President George W Bush in September, Clinton's cellphone rang
on stage and he joked that only two people had the number "and they
are related to me", musing that he hoped he wasn't becoming "a
premature grandfather".
"Every day I get up and I say, 'You have to remember whose child this
is. Do not interfere. Be there when you are welcome. Be loving but not
judgmental," Clinton said, to laughs, in an interview with CNN at his
annual Clinton Global Initiative, days before the baby's arrival.
The 34-year-old Chelsea Clinton said in an interview with Glamour
magazine last year that she and her husband had hoped to make 2014
"the year of the baby". She announced her pregnancy in April, at the
end of a forum in New York on female empowerment.
"I just hope I will be as good a mom to my child and, hopefully,
children as my mom was to me," she said at the time.
Even in her late stage of pregnancy, the younger Clinton helped
preside over the family's annual conference last week, conducting
interviews on stage and announcing efforts to promote community
service and stop the killing of elephants and trafficking of ivory. An
advocate for elephants, she warned her child "could grow up in a
planet without elephants".
Chelsea Clinton grew up in the public eye as a teenager in the White
House, later graduating from Stanford and Columbia universities. She
worked in finance in New York and in public health, earning a
doctorate from Oxford University.
She serves as vice-chair of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton
Foundation, and helps direct its humanitarian and philanthropic
efforts around the globe. She recently left NBC News, where she served
as a special correspondent.
The new parents, who married in 2010, were friends as teenagers in
Washington and both attended Stanford. Mezvinsky is a hedge fund
manager and the son of former representatives Majorie Margolies of
Pennsylvania and Edward Mezvinsky of Iowa, longtime friends of the
Clintons.
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