Benedict Cumberbatch to become a father

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Benedict Cumberbatch who played gay war hero Alan Turing in the The Imitation Game, has announced that he and theatre director Sophie Hunter are expecting a baby.

In a statement, a publicist for the star of Sherlock said: “I am delighted to confirm that Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter are expecting their first child. They are both over the moon.”

The couple announced their engagement last year and are due to marry in the Spring.

Speaking last weekend to accept the ensemble cast award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for the ‘The Imitation Game’, Cumberbatch said: “Alan Turing was a war hero, he was a gay icon and he was and is the father of modern computing science. He is a man who died tragically early due to a Government that he helped free from fascism by his work in the Second World War in cracking the enigma code, rewarding him for his nature, for confessing to who he was as a gay man in a time of intolerance in the 1950s.”

The ‘Sherlock’ star in 2013 officiated at a same-sex civil partnership for one of his closest friends.

Cumberbatch attracted criticism after he defended the absence of gay sex in the film, saying: “If you need to see that to understand that he’s gay, then all is lost for any kind of subtle storytelling. It’s not something that needed to be made obvious.”