Florence Pugh on the hardships of having dated ex Zach Braff

Florence Pugh is aware that people weren’t always rooting for her relationship with now-ex Zac Braff, given the 21-year age gap.

“We weren’t in anybody’s face. It was just that people didn’t like it,” the “Don’t Worry Darling” star told Vogue For their January 2023 cover story.

“They envisioned me with someone smaller and someone in Blockbuster.”

Pugh explained how if she had dated someone in the entertainment industry who was her own age, the romance might have been more suitable for tabloid fodder.

“I think the reason young relationships in Hollywood get twisted so easily is because they get added to gossip sites,” she said. “It’s exciting to see. And I wish I had been in a relationship that didn’t do anything like this.

Pugh, 27, met Braff, 47, through a mutual friend, and the pair became close after she was cast in a semi-sponsored short film he was making for Adobe. They were first seen together in public in April 2019 in New York City.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Midsomer” star was in the midst of some personal hardships for the “Scrubs” alum, including the death of her best friend Nick Cordero and the deaths of her father and sister due to the virus.

Pugh told Vogue that she remembers Cordero as someone who “made everyone feel good” and that the late Broadway star is “a big part” of including her in her friendship group.

However, by August 2022, “Lady Macbeth” stat confirmed that she and Braff had quietly called it quits earlier that year.

“We’re trying to get over this separation without the world knowing, because it’s a relationship that everyone has an opinion on,” she told Harper’s Bazaar at the time.

“We just felt like it would really benefit us not to tell millions of people how happy they are that we’re not together.”

Yet there is a lot of love and mutual respect left for each other.

Braff was interviewed for Pugh’s Vogue cover story, and he raved to the publication about his former acting chops.

The filmmaker said, “I think he is one of the greatest actors of his generation.”

“She’s just magnetic. You can’t take your eyes off her. And it’s not just her beauty and it’s not just her acting ability, it’s that thing, that magic thing that transcends the screen, where no one else Everyone goes: I want to see what this person does.

Braff most recently showed his support for Pugh on his birthday earlier this month, writing in a post on social media, “Happy birthday, legend.”

The former couple has not been romantically linked with anyone else since their split.