How Florence Pugh Felt About People Criticizing Her Relationship With Zach Braff

Florence Pugh doesn’t think the naysayers have constructive criticism embedded in their attacks of her relationship with Zach Braff. “I’ve always found it funny … I’m old enough to be an adult and pay taxes, but I’m not old enough to know who I should and should not have sex with,” Pugh said on “Sue Perkins: An hour or so with…” in July 2020 (via People). She doesn’t think the critics are unaware of the incoherence. It’s deliberate, she said. “It’s making a young woman feel like s**t for no reason.” 

The “Black Widow” star’s response came just three months after she uploaded an Instagram video addressing the backlash she received for wishing Braff a happy birthday. “I am 24 years old. I do not need you to tell me who I should and should not love,” she said in the April 2020 clip. Braff had just turned 45 then. While Pugh rarely posts about her boyfriend, she disables the comments section when she does. More often, Pugh chooses Instagram Stories for anything romance-related. 

Pugh believes people project their own wishes onto her relationship. “I think it bugs people that it’s not who they expected,” she told The Sunday Times in July 2021, venturing that the public might have imagined her with someone like Timothée Chalamet. “But it’s my life and I’m not doing anything to please people or to make it a better headline or story.”