It’s been a year since Florence Pugh and Zach Braff split up. But this week, the exes were photographed together at the premiere of their upcoming film A Good Person.
My ex and I could never, that’s for sure.
The film was written by Braff with Pugh in mind for the lead roll and filmed while they were still together. But after their chummy red carpet appearance fans are speculating whether the pair could be on.
While my logical brain knows this is a professional engagement and they are two professional adults who work together, my heart jumped out of my chest thinking that MAYBE they’d rekindled their romance.
After getting together in April 2020, the pair dated for three years before calling it quits in early 2022 but only confirming it publically in August.
Sadly, Pugh credited the discourse surrounding their 21-year age gap as one of the big factors of their split.
“We’ve been trying to do this separation without the world knowing, because it’s been a relationship that everybody has an opinion on,” she told Harper’s Bazaar.“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. I automatically get a lumpy throat when I talk about it.”
I wanna give her a hug.
Clearly, going public with their relationship wasn’t something they took lightly. After all, Pugh hard launched their relationship by posting pics of the Scrubs star with their dog, Billie, to celebrate his 46th birthday.
It’s pretty fkn serious when a hard launch includes the fact they have a dog together.
Immediately, they copped backlash for their age gap from not only Insta followers but countless media outlets.
But at the time Florence was 24 years old and she argued she’s a grown-ass woman with agency. She said she’s entirely capable of choosing who she can love.
Pugh took to her Insta to clap back at the age gap outcry, admitting that she was forced to turn the comments off because they were too vile.
“On Monday, I posted a photo in honour of Zach’s birthday and I wrote a birthday message underneath. Within about eight minutes of the photo being posted, I had about 70 percent of the comments hurling abuse and being horrid—basically bullying someone on my page,” she said.
“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. It is not your place.”
Sadly this didn’t put a stop to the vitriol with Braff and Pugh having to address their age gap throughout their three-year relationship.
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“I’ve always found it funny, how I can be good enough for people to watch my work, and support my work, and pay for tickets, and 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,” she told Sue Perkins on her podcast An Hour Or So With…
“Once again, [it’s] making a young woman feel like shit for no reason. I think I did feel shit for awhile about admitting that, and then I thought, ‘How ridiculous is that?’”
Despite it all, the pair had an amicable break up and clearly respect each other as friends and colleagues.
After all the shit they copped for years, I reckon they did pretty well to make it for three years. And while I’m a huge fan of these two talented creatives as a couple, it’s pretty refreshing to see two exes on the red carpet without the drama.
Well, aside from Miss Flo slaying with those sleeves.
