Florence Pugh Is Always Ready To Defend Controversial Age Gap Relationship With Zach Braff

From "Oppenheimer" to "Dune" to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Florence Pugh has made a name for herself as one of the biggest rising stars in Hollywood. However, with that fame has come increased scrutiny regarding Pugh's love life, particularly as it pertains to her age-gap romance with fellow actor Zach Braff. Even though the two are no longer together, Pugh is always more than willing to go to bat for Braff and their relationship.

Pugh and Braff seemingly began dating sometime around early 2019, and gradually became more public about their relationship throughout that year and into 2020. This raised a few eyebrows, given the significant age difference between the celebrity couple. Braff was born in April 1975, making him about 21 years older than Pugh, who was born in January 1996. Pugh's first public response to critics of her and Braff's relationship appears to have come in December 2019, when she shut down an Instagram user for making a snide comment about their age gap.

It didn't stop there, though. Things evidently crossed a line on April 6, 2020, when Pugh made an Instagram post for Braff's birthday, only to have it be inundated with more critical comments about their romance (which have since been removed). Nevertheless, the actor stood her ground in an Instagram video she posted two days later. "I am 24 years old. 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," Pugh said, adding, "It is not your place." She doubled down on this sentiment during a July 2020 appearance on Sue Perkins' podcast, "An Hour or So With," noting that relationships with people her own age just hadn't worked out for her up to that point.

During an August 2022 interview with Harper's Bazaar, Florence Pugh confirmed that she and Zach Braff had broken up earlier that year. She explained that they opted to keep their split under wraps for a time, and implied that the public scrutiny regarding their age gap played a part in the end of their relationship. "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 said, adding, "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."

Despite parting ways romantically, however, Pugh and Braff apparently remain on great terms. The two regularly sing each other's praises, and were happily photographed together in 2023 while promoting the release of the film "A Good Person," which starred Pugh and was directed by Braff. Still, the decision was far from an easy one. "I automatically get a lumpy throat when I talk about it," Pugh told Harper's Bazaar in 2022.

Pugh later appeared on "The Louis Theroux Podcast" in November 2025, making it clear that while the online hate got to her, she still stands by her past relationship with Braff. "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*** I wanted to do," she said, adding that, if nothing else, her arguments did at least get through to some. "I actually had a few people in the public eye reach out to me and say, 'I didn't think of it like that, and thank you for saying that,'" Pugh shared.