Ben-Hur, not surprisingly, a character loved by many women (9)

I believe the answer is:

bunthorne

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'a character loved by many women' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'ben-hur not surprisingly' is the wordplay.
'surprisingly' is an anagram indicator (a surprising ordering of the letters).
'ben'+'hur'+'not'='benhurnot'
'benhurnot' anagrammed gives 'BUNTHORNE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for bunthorne that I've seen is " Patience won him".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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