Florence Pugh is known for keeping her private life, well, private. However, it’s a little known fact that 27-year-old “It Girl” was in a low profile but serious relationship with actor and filmmaker Zach Braff, 47, from 2019 until the couple split up sometime in 2022.
The couple, who had a 20-plus year age difference between them, met through friends. But they became closer when Braff cast her in a short film for Adobe, In the Time It Takes to Get There, alongside ’90s icon Alicia Silverstone. Though Pugh and Braff never appeared on red carpets together and only made infrequent appearances on one another’s respective social media accounts, the online backlash to their pairing was palpable.
In a new Vogue cover story, Pugh now opens up about her relationship with Braff for the first time. And not shockingly, she has a theory about why fans didn’t approve of her relationship or the age difference — even as May-December romances, in which an older actor dates a younger starlet, have been Hollywood staples pretty much as long as Hollywood has existed.
“‘We weren’t in anyone’s faces. It was just that people didn’t like it,’ she says. ‘They imagined me with someone younger and someone in blockbusters. I think young relationships in Hollywood are so easily twisted because they add to the gossip sites. It’s exciting to watch. And I think I was in a relationship that didn’t do any of that.’”
It’s unclear whether Pugh is currently single, but one would have to imagine that she’d keep future relationships even closer to the chest after her experience dating Braff.
The Don’t Worry Darling star also opened up on Instagram about being featured on the cover of Vogue for the second time in three years, which she said felt “bizarre and unreal” the first time.
“It’s here. It happened again,” Pugh wrote. “I remember when I was told that Anna Wintour wanted me to be on the cover three years ago, I felt like I was there. I’d made it.”
“Vogue cover at 24 for me felt bizarre and unreal,” she continued, noting that she got her first cover printed with an over-the-top gold frame. “It was such a wonderful reminder of how unique that moment in my career was. Anna Wintour wanting me on the cover for a second time feels just as unique. If not more?”
“I love working, I love working hard. To be recognized in these pictures and pages like this is such a wonderful nod. These magazines were always special to me when I was younger. The weight, the pages, the images. They have so much to say and I’m so appreciative and lucky to be here again,” Pugh added, making sure to thank everyone who made it possible.