Florence Pugh’s latest vacay pics are raising a lot of eyebrows and questions this week. The star was seen frolicking on the idyllic Spanish island of Ibiza with a group of friends including Pugh’s Midsommar co-star Will Poulter, looking sun-kissed and freshly hunkified from his MCU workout regime for his upcoming role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Conspicuous in his absence was Pugh’s boyfriend of the last three years, Scrubs star Zach Braff. In fact, a cursory inspection of either of the pairs’ Instagram accounts never shows the two together (you’re three times as likely to spot Braff’s former Scrubs co-star Donald Faison on his Insta than catch a glimpse of Pugh). And although Pugh has been involved in multiple high profile projects over the last three years, she never has walked the red carpet with Braff. Her fun in the sun with Poulter, 29 has many wondering whether she and Braff are even an item anymore.
So what gives? Are these crazy kids still making it work? Here’s what we know about the relationship.
It is well known that the pair are pretty committed to keeping their commitment out of the spotlight. Whether that’s so each person retains their individuality as artist or that they would rather not be confronted by the press while in couple mode is anyone’s guess. Much has been made about the couple’s age difference — Braff, 47 is over two decades older than Pugh, 26. The scrutiny may be one of the reasons that the both of them tend to shun the spotlight.
The pair began seeing each other in 2018, but didn’t make it publicly official until 2019. The relationship began to draw criticism due to the pairs’ twenty-year age difference.
According to The Cut, Pugh took to her Instagram in 2020 to let people know that her love life wasn’t any of their business, saying, “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, ever, ever tell anyone who they can and cannot love. It is not your place. And really, it has nothing to do with you.”
“I’ve always found this part of what people do really bizarre,” Pugh told Elle UK in May 2021. “I’m an actor because I like acting and I don’t mind people watching my stuff, but people have no right to educate me on my private life.”
Pugh spoke to The Sunday Times in June of the same year and stated that while Braff may not be the person her fans imagined her falling in love with, “It’s my life, and I’m not doing anything to please people or to make it a better headline or story. I want to also be a person!”
As for Braff, despite his similar under-the-radar approach to the relationship, he has certainly made his feelings known publicly, if not frequently. In January, the Garden State director posted a story to Instagram expressing his fortune at having Pugh in his life. Braff captioned the story, later reposted in a screen cap by a Twitter fan account of Pugh’s, “Happy Birthday to this beautiful human being. I am so lucky to know you. And the world is so lucky they get to witness your incredible talent. @Florence_Pugh”. #HappyBirthdayFlorencePugh.”
Pugh reciprocated last month with a series of Instagram stories wishing Braff well that featured pics of the couple’s adopted rescue dog, Billie. According to InTouch Weekly, the three pics were captioned, “Happy Birthday Zachary.”
It appears that the pair are still very much on. As for Poulter, he was in Ibiza in the first place for the same reason Pugh was — to celebrate the 26th birthday of British-American designer Harris Reed (Reed published several photos of Pugh to their own Insta). Pugh’s hang with a former co-star is hardly earth-shattering either. She’s been accompanied on the red carpet and elsewhere by co-stars including Timothée Chalamet (Little Women), Francois Civil (La Belle Epoque) and Alexander Skarsgard (The Little Drummer Girl) over the past three years while dating Braff.
So ship all you want, but barring a contradictory statement from either party’s publicist, it seems Pugh and Braff are still happily together for the time being.