Screen star Benedict Cumberbatch is to become a father as his fiancee Sophie Hunter is pregnant, according to reports.
The Sherlock actor’s publicist is said to have told newspapers that theatre director Hunter is expecting and that the couple are “over the moon”.
Cumberbatch, 38, and Hunter, 36, announced their engagement in The Times newspaper on November 5 last year and they are said to be planning to marry this spring.
Cumberbatch is enjoying a golden period in his career as one of Britain’s most popular actors and he has been lauded for his role as codebreaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game.
Hunter is an Oxford graduate who studied modern languages. She has directed a number of experimental and avant garde productions including a puppet version of Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition which toured the US.
She has taken acting roles in TV shows such as Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood and an episode of Midsomer Murders, as well as the 2004 film version of Vanity Fair starring Reese Witherspoon. She appeared alongside Cumberbatch in the 2009 film Burlesque Fairytales.