Florence Pugh addresses controversy about 21-year age gap with ex-boyfriend Zach Braff
Florence Pugh has said she received an 'insane amount of abuse' during her relationship with Zach Braff due to their age gap.
The Oxford-born actress, 29, has opened up about the torrent of hate she received from online trolls during their three-year romance, which came to an end in 2022.
Although she didn't take the verbal bashings lying down, Pugh said it is 'not fair' that she and Braff, 50, were subjected to such intense public scrutiny.
So it's no wonder that she's since kept schtum about her love life, given that she had such a hard time during her relationship with Braff.
Advert
Pugh and the former Scrubs star got together in 2019 after meeting on the set of the short film In the Time It Takes to Get There.
The former couple only posted a few rare snaps of each other on social media throughout their time together, but each time they did, the comment section was brimming with outrage about their age gap.
The Don't Worry Darling actress - who is 21 years younger than Braff - addressed the criticism multiple times over the years, including in a video shared to Instagram in April 2020.
"I do not need you to tell me who I should and should not love and I would never in my life tell anyone who they can and cannot love," she said in the clip, as per People. "It is not your place."
The actress was forced to turn the comments off on a post she shared to celebrate her then-boyfriend's 45th birthday, due to the 'toxic' responses she received from people.
Now, Pugh has spoken out about the impact that the constant condemnation of her romance with Braff had on her.
During an appearance on The Louis Theroux Podcast, she said that people online had 'no right to educate' her on who she should be in a relationship with.
"It was an insane amount of abuse being hurled at my relationship, just because there was an age gap," Pugh said.
"I stood up for it, and I stood up for him and I stood up for me just being allowed to do whatever the f**k I wanted to do, and that kind of did actually change a few people's minds."
"I'll always defend people that I love, I will always stand up for them," Pugh continued.
"I'll always make sure that if there needs to be a reset and there needs to be a bit of a smack on the wrist, I will do that because it's not fair that so much of your life gets to have jabs."
The Oppenheimer actress admitted it 'hurt' her when she and Braff were being bombarded with hate.
"With relationships and with romance in this world, it doesn't matter how much you speak on it or how little you speak on it, people don't care," Pugh continued.
"They want a story; they want a reality show. It doesn't really matter how much you say you love someone or how much they make you happy.
"If they don't like them and it doesn't fit that image that they want of you, they don't care. And I think that hurt me."
The controversy surrounding her more than two decade age gap with Braff even came up when Pugh announced they had parted ways during an interview with Harper's BAZAAR in September 2022.
"We've been trying to do this separation without the world knowing, because it's been a relationship that everybody has an opinion on," she said.
"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. So we've done that."
In December 2023, Braff said that he and Pugh 'love each other and we're friends' when asked about their breakup during an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show.
Topics: Florence Pugh, Zach Braff, Celebrity, Celebrity News, Sex and Relationships
Olivia Burke