Hammersmith's Sophie to Become Mrs Cumberbatch
Star's fiancee was student at St Paul's Girls' School
Actor Benedict Cumberbatch has said he is "really happy" after becoming engaged to his girlfriend, theatre director Sophie Hunter.
Sophie, 36 grew up in Hammersmith and went to St Paul's Girls' School in Brook Green before going on to Oxford where she studied Italian and French.
She went on to become an actress, appearing in Tv shows including Midsomer Murders and Torchwood before co-founding the Lacuna Theatre company and has directed a handful of successful plays and operas across Europe, the Middle East and America which include 2010's Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen on Broadway, New York.
She was also awarded the Samuel Beckett Award in 2007 for writing and directing the play, the Terrific Electric at The Barbican Theatre when she was 29.
Benedict, 38 whose latest film The Imitation Game is released today, also has local connections - he was born in Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, at the time sited in Goldhawk Road and grew up in Kensington with his actor parents Timothy Cumberbatch, who uses the stage name Carlton, and Wanda Ventham - who today also play his parents in the TV show Sherlock.
He is also a strong supporter of Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre at Charing Cross Hospital in Fulham Palace Road, having made appeals and helping to launch its London Night Hike in 2010.
The couple first met in 2009 when acting together in a film called Burlesque Fairytales in 2009, but only started dating earlier this year, when they were spotted together at a tennis match.
This month they made it official in a very traditional way, by placing a small ad in the Times:
Afterwards, the actor told USA Today: " It’s what I would have done if I wasn’t famous. “It’s a normal thing to do in my country. It was a way of telling our friends who we hadn’t been able to tell before (they saw) some grainy shot of a ring on her finger."
This week, asked about fan's reaction to the engagement, he told E! News: " I think most people are just really happy as we are. But the only support I really need to be honest I need is the woman I love who I proposed to."
November 14, 2014
