Royal baby: Duchess wants boy, Duke wants girl

Britain's Kate Duchess of Cambridge attends the 1st Battalion Irish Guards St Patrick's Day Parade with her husband Prince William. Photo / AP

The Duchess of Cambridge has told a soldier she would like her baby to be a boy as she attended a St Patrick's Day parade at a military barracks.

But Kate, who is five months pregnant, said the Duke, who attended the event with her, would prefer to have a girl.

Ahead of watching the parade at Mons Barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire, the duchess suffered an embarrassing mishap when the heel of one of her shoes became stuck in a drain.

Kate, who showed patriotic spirit in the same green Emilia Wickstead dress coat she wore to the event last year, had to lean on William while she pulled it out with her hand.

Afterwards, the royal couple chatted to soldiers from the 1st Battalion Irish Guards in the Guardsmens' cookhouse.

Guardsman Lee Wheeler, 29, said: "I was talking to her about the baby, of course.

"I asked her, 'Do you know if it's a girl or boy', and she said, 'Not yet'.

"She said, 'I'd like to have a boy and William would like a girl'. That's always the way.

"I asked her if she had any names yet and she said no.

"I said I suppose you've got to stick to traditional names."

Wheeler said the duchess told him the couple had not settled on names for the baby, who will be third in line to the British throne.

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 also pinned a spring on the collar of the regiment's mascot, an Irish wolfhound named Domhnall.

Kate suffered a minor mishap when one of her high heels became briefly stuck in a drainage grille. The duchess leaned on her husband as she wrenched it loose.

The royal St Patrick's Day tradition was started by Queen Alexandra, the wife of King Edward VII, in 1901.

- PA with AP