Benedict Cumberbatch is to become a father for the first time. The “Imitation Game” star’s fiancée, Sophie Hunter, is pregnant, Page Six can exclusively reveal.
The 38-year-old actor — who’s a contender for the best actor Golden Globe this weekend for his role in the WWII drama and is expected to garner an Oscar nomination — is delighted and excited about becoming a dad, we’re told.
Sources also said the low-key couple, who were engaged in early November, are planning to marry sooner than expected, in the next few months.
One source told Page Six: “Sophie is a few months along, and both she and Benedict are very excited about it. They are also quietly planning to marry in early spring.”
“I am delighted to confirm that Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter are expecting their first child. They are both over the moon,” a rep for the actor told Page Six Wednesday.
Cumberbatch and Hunter, 36, an actress and theater director, were most recently spotted together last Saturday at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, where she disguised her bump with a long Just Cavalli maxidress and a discreetly placed purse.
The festival honored “The Imitation Game” — which stars Cumberbatch as mathematician Alan Turing, who broke the Nazi Enigma code during WWII — with an award for ensemble cast. His co-star Keira Knightley, who didn’t make it to Palm Springs, is also pregnant for the first time.
On the red carpet, Cumberbatch, who is back filming TV series “Sherlock,” which turned him into an international sex symbol, politely sidestepped reporters’ questions about his and Hunter’s upcoming nuptials. When asked about their wedding plans, he said he was busy reprising his role as Sherlock Holmes and, “One thing at a time!”
Cumberbatch and Hunter announced their engagement with a modest, somewhat old-fashioned notice in the “forthcoming marriages” section of the Times of London in November.
When asked about the charming announcement, he told USA Today, “It’s what I would have done if I wasn’t famous.”