According to newlywed Stephen Fry, Queen Elizabeth II thinks that equal marriage is “wonderful”, or so he has heard.

Fry spoke about the Queen on The Jonathan Ross Show on Saturday night, saying tht he had heard from a source that when she signed the equal marriages act, the Queen claimed it to be “wonderful”.

The Queen gave Royal Assent to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act in July 2013, paving the way for marriages to finally begin in March 2014.

Fry said: “It was only last summer that Her Majesty The Queen gave the Royal Assent. I don’t know whether this is true, but there’s an Italian saying… if it’s not true, it’s well founded.”

“When the Queen signed the Royal Assent for the equal marriages act, allowing gay people to marry for the first time, she put it down and said ‘Well, who’d have thought 62 years ago when I came to the throne, I’d be signing something like this? Isn’t it wonderful?’”

“I am so proud to live in the country where [acceptance] seems to be the absolute majority view.”

The Queen – who remains politically neutral – has never publicly remarked about same-sex marriage.