Benedict Cumberbatch believes his engagement is "a minor miracle".

The British star confirmed he is to wed theatre director Sophie Hunter via an announcement in British newspaper The Times earlier this month. He was astounded by how much interest his upcoming nuptials have garnered, even though he's also surprised they are happening.

"It's an amazing thing to find somebody you love. It's amazing to find somebody you love at all, let alone somebody who loves you back in the same way and to the same degree," he told British magazine Hello! "And if that is amazing, well, considering how busy both Sophie and I are, it's a minor miracle that we met each other at all in the way we did."

Benedict and Sophie originally met in 2009 after they made the film Burlesque Fairytales, but they didn't start dating until earlier this year.

The 38-year-old star can't help gushing about his new fiancée, who recently showed off her engagement band while supporting Benedict at the premiere of his movie The Imitation Game in New York City last week.

"To have Sophie in my life is something I am incredibly grateful for and very excited about. It's a bit of a golden moment for me right now and I am loving it. I think I'll be having a very private wedding," he said.

Although the Sherlock actor couldn't be more excited, not everyone feels that way. Some of his fans took to Twitter soon after the news was made public to bemoan that the British star was off the market. Benedict doesn't take that too seriously and is actually more bothered by the collective nickname his admirers are known by - Cumberb***hes.

"I wish people wouldn't call them that. My fans are incredibly smart and expressive people and Cumberb***hes was a name that some of them thought to call themselves early and it just caught on," he said. "But what they really are is a bunch of self-regulating, intelligent, witty, creative, inspiring and determined young people - or if they're not young, they're young in spirit. And by the way, they come from both sexes too. I'm sure they'll get over my being engaged - they're smart, they'll get used to the idea."