LONDON (AP) - The Duchess of Cambridge doesn't know the sex of her first child - but she hopes it's a boy. Her husband, Prince William, however, would prefer a girl.

The former Kate Middleton, who is five months pregnant, made the revelation to a soldier on Sunday at a St Patrick's Day ceremony honouring the Irish Guards.

Guardsman Lee Wheeler said the Duchess told him: "I'd like to have a boy, and William would like a girl."

The Duchess wore a green dress coat and a shamrock lapel pin as she presented sprigs of shamrock to soldiers in the annual ceremony at a barracks in Aldershot, southern England.

She suffered a minor mishap when one of her high heels became briefly stuck in a drainage grille.