Bill Clinton may have let gender of Chelsea's baby slip

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Bill Clinton is about to become a grandfather for the first time. And Wednesday, he may have let slip one of his family's closest-held secrets: the baby's gender.

Clinton spoke with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos at the 2014 Clinton Global Initiative this week. In the interview, which aired Wednesday on Good Morning America, Stephanopoulos asked Clinton about what he most wanted to teach his grandchild.

"I want my grandson --" he paused, "-- or granddaughter --"

Stephanopoulos then interrupted, wondering if the former president had inadvertently revealed huge news.

"No, no, no," Clinton said. "I'm proud of my son-in-law and my daughter for not wanting to know."

Answering the original question, Clinton revealed -- in very gender neutral terms -- his hopes for his grandchild.

"I want them to get up every day and look at the world with wonder and reverence," he said. "I want them to respect everyone they meet, whatever their background."

He said he wanted him or her to "really love being alive... 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," he said.

Both Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, have regularly expressed their excitement for the arrival of the new baby, the first child of daughter Chelsea Clinton and her husband, Marc Mezvinksy. On Sunday, the former president said he hoped "by the first of October, I'll be a grandfather."