Florence Pugh Doesn't Hold Back Against Critics Of Her Relationship With Zach Braff

Months after their breakup, Florence Pugh and Zach Braff are still addressing fan backlash over their relationship. The two actors started dating sometime after Pugh starred in Braff's 2019 short film "In the Time It Takes to Get There," with the two soon spotted holding hands in New York that April. Things got chaotic, however, when they went Instagram official in April 2020, with Pugh posting a birthday message to Braff. Her comments, flooded with hateful and disapproving messages about their 21-year age gap, compelled Pugh to clap back in a follow-up Instagram video. "I am 24 years old. I do not need you to tell me who I should and should not love," she told viewers at the time. 

When Pugh confirmed the duo's split in August 2022, she told Harper's Bazaar that they had been separated since earlier that year. "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 explained. Understandably, Pugh mused that the former couple didn't need "millions of people telling us how happy they are that we're not together."

Remaining quite friendly with her ex, Pugh recently reflected on why the public was so (negatively) obsessed with her former relationship.

In a January Vogue cover story — appropriately titled "Florence Pugh's Radical Self-Acceptance" — the "Black Widow" star got candid about the public reception of her relationship with ex-beau Zach Braff. "We weren't in anyone's faces. It was just that people didn't like it," Pugh said. The "The Wonder" actor goes on to hypothesize that fans likely "imagined me with someone younger and someone in blockbusters." Such a relationship, Pugh speculated, is more "easily twisted because they add to the gossip sites. It's exciting to watch." Unfortunately for the tabloids, Pugh and Braff's former domestic bliss didn't fit into that mold.

There is certainly no love lost between the two ex-lovers, however. Braff, who also spoke to Vogue for Pugh's profile, was nothing but complimentary of the 27-year-old acting phenom. "I quite simply think she's one of the greatest actors of her generation," the actor and director gushed. "She's just magnetic. You cannot take your eyes off of her."

On Instagram, Pugh more enthusiastically expressed excitement over her second appearance on the cover of American Vogue. Recalling her elation three years ago when Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour extended the offer, Pugh shared that she even got the cover "printed and framed (big over the top gold frame.. obvi)." This second cover feels "just as unique. If not more?" Pugh gushed.