Florence Pugh addresses 21-year age-gap relationship with Zach Braff for first time in years
Florence Pugh has spoken about the age-gap between her and ex Zach Braff for the first time in years.
The 29-year-old Marvel star has spoken about her three-year romance with Braff, 50, during a recent appearance on The Louis Theroux Podcast.
She revealed how it became the topic of controversy after their 21-year age-gap was discovered, and why she no longer talks about her relationships in the media.
Pugh and Braff were linked from 2019 to 2022 and met when she was cast in his directorial project, In The Time It Takes to Get There.
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“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. They want a story,” Pugh said.
“They sort of want a reality show, and so 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.”
She explained how there was an 'insane amount of abuse being hurled at my relationship just because there was an age gap' which led her to call out those commenters on her social media platform in a 2020 clip.
There, Pugh told people off for ‘bullying’ Braff when she posted a birthday snap on her Instagram account.
She said in the video: “Within about eight minutes of the photo being posted, I had about 70 percent of the comments hurling abuse and being horrid — basically bullying someone on my page.
“It is the first time in my entire Instagram life that I’ve had to turn off the comments on my page. I’ve never been an Instagram page that encourages that. I’ve never been an Instagram page that likes that toxic vibe.”
The actor went on tell people to ‘kindly unfollow’ her if they did not agree with steering clear of making ‘cyber bulling’ comments about Braff.
To Theroux, Pugh said: “I’ll always defend people that I love, I will always stand up for them.
“If there needs to be a reset and 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.”
“It got to the point where it was just really horrible to see someone that you are with receiving that, and it was never at me, it was only at him,” she added. “And I think I just needed to kind of just check everyone, and so I made a video and it got a lot of love and lots of people were supportive, which was great. I do think people online need to be reminded that we’re real.”
The pair split in 2022, with Pugh confirming the news via Harper's Bazaar, but they are said to have remained friends.
Topics: Celebrity, Florence Pugh, Podcast, Sex and Relationships
Britt Jones