In August 2022 Florence Pugh quietly confirmed she and Zach Braff split after nearly three years of dating. Their relationship garnered criticism at the time for a 21-year age gap which Pugh has addressed in a new cover interview.
“We weren’t in anyone’s faces. It was just that people didn’t like it,” the Don’t Worry Darling star revealed. “They imagined me with someone younger and someone in blockbusters.”
The actress went on to explain that she felt if she dated someone younger, or in the entertainment industry, it would have been more suitable for the tabloids. “I think young relationships in Hollywood are so easily twisted because they add to the gossip sites,” she said. “It’s exciting to watch. And I think I was in a relationship that didn’t do any of that.”
Pugh, 24 at the time, and Braff, 45 at the time, met through a mutual friend. The actress was cast by the actor and filmmaker in a short film for Adobe before they were spotted for the first time together in April 2019.
Speaking on the split in 2022 in an interview with Harpers Bazaar she said, “We’ve been trying to do this separation without the world knowing, because it’s been a relationship that everybody has an opinion on.”
Pugh continued, “We just felt something like this would really do us the benefit of not having millions of people telling us how happy they are that we’re not together.”
The Scrubs alum was also interviewed for the cover story and had nothing but praise for his ex-girlfriend. “She’s just magnetic. You cannot take your eyes off of her. And it’s not just her beauty and it’s not just her acting ability, it’s that thing, that magic thing that transcends the screen, where anyone and everyone goes: I want to see whatever this person does.”
