Florence Pugh is 25 years old, and the world is her oyster. She’s probably got a multi-film deal with Marvel. She’s an in-demand actress in a variety of projects and in recent years, she’s become crazy-famous because of Midsommer and Little Women, even getting an Oscar nomination for one of those films (not the right one). Since 2018, she’s also been dating Zach Braff, who is 21 years older than Pugh, making him 46 years old right now. Florence gets really, really upset if people point out the age difference or suggest that their ages make it kind of gross. Being criticized about her old-ass boyfriend seems like the most traumatic thing that’s ever happened to Florence. Which just makes me anxious about how she’ll feel if and when Zach tries to propose to her:
Florence Pugh’s romance with Zach Braff got a shot in the arm after the Scrubs actor jetted to the UK to wow her parents. Black Widow actress Flo, 25, has been dating medical comedy star Zach, 46, since 2019. There is a 21-year age gap between the pair.
A source who has known Zach for years tells me: “Zach has this reputation like he’s Charlie Harper on Two and a Half Men – this kind of lazy bachelor with a revolving door of younger women in his life. He’s conducting himself completely differently with Florence, and has gone as far as spending time with her family in England earlier this year and moving her into his LA mansion. He didn’t do this with other girlfriends – nothing close to that – and he’s making every indication that he’s really ready to settle down, especially now they’ve passed through the gauntlet of working together and getting out the other side without killing each other.
“Of course, Florence is different from every other woman he’s dated in that she has a hot career – hotter than his – and he’s been very supportive and not held her back in the slightest.”
Zach, who has dated a string of beauties including Drew Barrymore, Kirsten Dunst and Mandy Moore, met Florence’s family for the first time in September.
My source reckons the “only thing that’s keeping him from proposing is wanting to know for certain she’ll say yes”.
Dude, you won’t know for sure that she’ll say yes until you ask her. That’s why men ask. How emotionally lazy is Zach Braff? Because it sounds like he wants credit for the bare minimum. Oh, he met his girlfriend’s family after dating her for three/four years, Boyfriend of the Year over here! Oh, he supports his mega-star girlfriend’s career instead of negging her, wow! Oh, he let her move in to his space and he didn’t throw a tantrum about it, yes she’ll marry you! Jesus. And after saying all that, yes, I think Florence probably does want to marry him. She probably does think this way, “oh, he finally met my family after years of dating, what a man!”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Instagram.
She’ll say yes if he asked, but if he’s actually putting this out there it’s weird. All they insist on putting out there is weird.
Him putting that out there via a ‘source’ is very manipulative – it’s like he wants to create a situation where she has no choice but to say yes to save face for both of them. If she were to say no the narrative would be spun to paint her in a negative way making him out to be poor little victim.
Ugh – this.
She seems upset at women being worried for her and dismisses it as concern trolling and then a story like this comes out…
She’s now in a position where she has to say yes or proves the public concern right and even then if they split up in a short time she’s got all these articles talking about how there love was so different and so special out there haunting her forever.
Ugh yes! It’s like men who propose in public—how can she say no without looking like a bitch when it’s on a freaking jumbo tron? Emotional manipulation.
I guess he read the comments questioning him standing by silently while Florence throws herself on the grenade of the age gap stuff… and this was his way of saying “this is a serious relationship and I’m totally serious about it and I might even marry her maybe”
Who’s gonna tell him that highlighting his track record of dating and discarding younger, less famous women isn’t helping the situation? This “source who has known Zach for years” is giving major frenemy vibes – I’m getting flashbacks to the Tatler Catherine the Great article lol
Ew that first picture!
They look like father and daughter.
Yes, it does. I don’t the attraction for her. Yuck
Well they easily could be
RIGHT! The oversized overalls and shirt make her look even younger. It really looks like shes out with her dad but god bless I suppose. I just cannot. If my 25 year old daughter told me she was dating a 46 year old, never married, serial dater I’d cry.
One of the reasons old men date young women- they have low expectations (they have been dating immature boys their own age, so by comparison- old dude is a prince!); and they often don’t have enough life experience to call men on their crap- like similarly aged women do.
It is all about being easy, and being worshiped and adored.
And men maybe should be a little embarrassed about it.
AMEN! (esp to your last sentence)
On a superficial note, Florence Pugh is absolutely stunning (and I love her gravelly voice). Also, while she is nowhere near anything other than slim, I appreciate that she hasn’t succumbed to the pressure of washboard abs. I hope she doesn’t marry Zach, only because she is still quite young and is really just hitting her stride in Hollywood, but I have confidence in her ability to wend her own way.
I totally agree that is the stereotype of May-December relationships. What I’m surprised about is that he chose Flo for this reason – she doesn’t seem like the usual vapid VS model in her early twenties like the crop Leo DiCaprio picks from. Her whining about her relationship aside, she seems very sensible, level-headed and like she knows what she wants – her choices in her projects show she’s not looking to be famous for the sake of it. I like Flo a lot and enjoy seeing her onscreen, but she confuses me!
This won’t end well. Yuck
i don’t personally have any strong feelings regarding age differences. i do know, though, from a few of my girlfriends who’ve dated older, that it’s a pretty sensitive issue and they (the girls) don’t like to feel judged or they get extremely defensive.
many young women are turned off by men their own age (immaturity, jobless, etc), so i kinda get the appeal of older guys – if he’s like a sexy silver fox or something, who doesn’t seem super needy and childish (like this guy).
i don’t know either zach or florence (love her, though), and i always wish anyone in love well. but … i will say this: people are weirded out by huge age gaps for a reason.
Yeah. My best friends have a huge age gap… bigger than these two… and I think they’re great together. They’re two very idiosyncratic people who found each other and I think it’s great. At this point they’ve been together for like 15 years and married for 7. So I’m not usually too judgy about this kind of thing. But yeah, a there are a lot of factors at play in that kind of relationship, and things can get squiffy. I don’t know these people, but it feels weird to me.
I disagree with Kaiser–you don’t ask unless you know the other person will say yes. Most “normal” ie. non-famous people in serious relationships discuss marriage before one of them proposes. A proposal where the outcome is really up in the air suggests to me that it’s really premature. Also, how is Zach Braff some big ladies’ man with a revolving door of younger beautiful women?? Maybe I am not acquainted enough with his body of work? I see him as a has-been TV actor.
I agree.
Also, if they were dating in 2019, at most they were together for one year before the pandemic shut everything down and her family is in the UK where covid restrictions are pretty strict (10 day quarantine even now that vaccination rates in parts of the US are high). There’s a lot here that can be side-eyed, but I don’t know if meeting your gf’s parents in person for the first time in 2.5 years of dating when there has been a pandemic for 1.5 of them is that strange.
I agree. This all sounds really off.
He makes me feel queasy & he is not aging well. That’s probably motivating him to try and lock her down now, before she meets someone hot and age appropriate who makes her wonder if maybe the people talking about their age difference didn’t have a point.
After the charm of defending the relationship wears off (she seems to really get off on that), you are left with Zach Braff. I mean, yuck.
^^^
all of this.
This couple is creepy, they look like father and daughter
He really reminds me of Michael Gove in that pap pic.
I am SO not here for this relationship. Keep waiting for Florence to get the ick but it’s like ‘the internet is against us’ angle is keeping them together?
Because god knows what else is.
He is gross but whatever.
Mandy Moore was a pretty big name when they were dating, so I don’t see this dynamic of him “outshining” his previous partners career-wise. He’s never been a movie star.
I think Florence is a good actress and she could sure as Hell do better than him, but I also think she’s gotten kind of lucky. Luck has so much to do with success in this business. I don’t think she’s amazing or anything. But again, she’s punching weigh below her weight with him.
I mean, I asked my daughter, who’s in her early 20s, what she thought. She (a) didn’t know who Florence Pugh was, (b) liked “Scrubs” and (c) still thinks it’s gross that Florence is dating Zach Braff.
This is the guy from scrubs and she is known for dating the guy from scrubs and likes talking about their age difference in interviews.
That’s where I’m at on these 2.
But that’s the thing, before they started dating everything you read about her was that she was up and coming, the next big thing, excellent actress, etc. Now, it’s like this is her claim to fame. Her career is taking off, maybe even in a better place than his, why is she letting this relationship overshadow that?
All three of the women named were, are, and will continue to be far bigger deals than Zach Braff.
That really bugged me about the article. Florence is so different bc her career is hot, which it is, but the other three had hotter or longer lasting careers than Zach.
Well this is a lie .
He was hanging out with her brother 2 years ago (her brother played Myrcella’s Martell fiancee in GOT,was trying to sleep with Hailee Steinfeld/Sophie Turner in Barely Lethal and is in Epic if ABC pick it up)
https://www.instagram.com/p/By2-1iwhOXo/
and was with her family at the Oscars last Feb with Kate Hudson and there was the photo of him and her dad
And I know Zach gets some grief on here but he was nominated for an Emmy this month for directing Ted Lasso ,diected one of Solos with M.Freeman and is also in a film with him Di Niro and TLJ that comes out next week
Good sleuthing and points Humbugged. Both were adults when they got together which is relevant whether it’s the man or the woman who’s the older partner. They got closer during quarantine and were likely distanced from family during covid. The only crime here are those coveralls!
I really enjoy her ig stories, especially the ones about cooking. Based on them, she seems very much like a normal, fun girl. She’s also great to watch and listen to onscreen, especially since her face is like 25% eyes, so she can emote very well.
The age difference + her career upswing means that they should break up within a few years because I can’t imagine her wanting to have children any time soon and a man in his late 40s might want to have them pretty soon. He’ll write and direct a movie about it (an emotional sequel to Garden State, they’ll call it) and maybe he’ll get an Oscar nom for screenwriting.
I know I am in the minority here but I like them as a couple! I also think that getting married is a conversation that they’ve most likely already have had. That being said I can see a situation in which he is ready to lock this down now and she wants to wait and putting this out there is a way to speed up the process.
I know someone who is dating a guy 27 years her senior and after 4 years of dating he just now is meeting her parents….mess. He was already in his 50s when she was 25. Majorly odd.
Not the case here with Flo as he met her family almost 2 year ago
I think because he’s not that handsome he gets more grief than he would of he if he looked like Chris Pine. He’s super average and I think I’m being generous there. I do think he’s a player that he likes to sleep with pretty young actresses. And of course that’s creepy but so do a lot of these actors.
I agree with the hero worship angle with younger dating older but that’s her road to navigate.
Everything about the wording of that Daily Mirror story is gross. I don’t even get so worked up about the age gap just the idea of unironically referring to him as a playboy with a revolving door of young women, the “string of beauties” he formerly dated, his star shining so much brighter than all his prior partners, how this Special One came and now because of her he is changed and doing the bare minimum of a grownup in a relationship. It’s probably all made up bullsh that is harmless enough that the people involved won’t bother denying, but I still am skeeved at the angle the magazine took.
And is a lie .He met her brother 2 years ago and was with her parents at the Ocars last Feb
He creeps me out. Not sure why. Pre existing before the age gap but this heightens it some.
That whole article is BS.They began dating in mid 2018,Zach visited her in Boston when she was making Little Women.He also met her parents in early 2019,not 3 years after they started dating lol.
I mean, she’s an adult who can make her own choices, but I do generally think people in their twenties who marry forty-somethings get a wake up call when they start hitting the fifties where aging really starts really settling in for most of us. I’m not surprised when a lot of those marriages fail after ten years for that reason.
He’s trying to lock her down before the whole world opens up again and she has the opportunity to meet someone better.