Actress Brooke Shields has revealed she is expecting her first child.

The Suddenly Susan star, 37, told the New York Post she and husband Chris Henchy had been trying for some time for a baby.

"Chris and I had been hoping for a while, just waiting and wondering and trying," she said.

She said the couple had decided not to find out the sex of the baby, which is due in May, and do not mind if it is a boy or a girl.

Shields married TV writer Henchy in 2001, following the annulment of her marriage to tennis champion Andre Agassi to whom she was wed for two years.

She was a child star who made her name in Blue Lagoon, a tale of two children ship-wrecked alone on a desert island who grow up and fall in love.

Time off

She never really fulfilled the expected transition from child star to successful adult movie actress.

However, she went on to star in the TV sitcom Suddenly Susan, for which she received two Golden Globe nominations.

Shields, who has just finished on the film Rent a Husband, says she is going to take time off from her career to concentrate on preparing for the baby's arrival.

In 2000, a man was given a 10-year probation order by a Los Angeles judge for stalking Shields over a 15-year period.

Accountant Mark Bailey pleaded no contest to terrorising the actress by sending her lewd and threatening letters.

He faces four years in jail if he contacts the actress or her family in the next decade.