In the event that you are one of the many people suddenly and completely obsessed with Florence Pugh due to Little Women Feels™, kindly move over because my friends and I (a collection of Timothée Chalamet posters) are right there with you. Florence was hands down the best part of that entire perfect movie, so logically, she was nominated for a casual Academy Award. And whomst could have walked the Oscars red carpet with her, you ask? None other than, uh, *checks notes* Zach Braff, man who once starred in Scrubs.
Twenty-four-year-old Florence and 45-year-old Zach have a 21-year age difference between them (no, my math is not wrong, Zach just turned 45), and as a result, they’ve been dealing with a fair amount of backlash online. To wit:
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And, I mean, sure—it’s kinda weird to think about the fact that Florence was only 5 when the first season of Scrubs aired. But not our business! They seem happy! Anyway, if you are still in need of answers, we’ve put together a timeline of their relationship so you can consider boarding their ’ship.
Circa August 2018
Zach hops on ye olde Instagram and starts Liking Florence’s Instagram posts in earnest. Truly, there is no chill to be found.
Circa April 2019
Florence stars in Zach’s short film In the Time It Takes to Get There. There’s no confirmation that this is how they originally fell for each other, buuut it seems like a possible starting point for their romance:
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Either way, later that same month, the pair are seen holding hands in New York City, so looks like things definitely ~heated up~ at some point.
Circa August 2019
Florence and Zach are spotted on vacation with friends, and pics start making the rounds on Twitter’s many, many, many Florence-themed fan accounts:
November 7, 2019
Florence and Zach go to Disneyland with friends! Mickey Mouse is shook!
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December 10, 2019
Zach casually calls Florence one of the people he “loves” on Instagram. I mean, it’s a group pic, but still:
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December 7, 2019
Florence and Zach attend the premiere of Little Women but don’t pose together even though, like, we all know they’re dating.
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December 28, 2019
One of Florence’s followers randomly comments, “You’re 44 years old,” under a cute emoji Zach leaves on her Instagram post, and she hits back with, “And yet he got it ??.”
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Wow, a clapback AND a confirmation of their relationship? We are not worthy.
April 6, 2020
Florence hits Instagram with a Zach Braff b-day message and strategically shuts all her comments off ahead of time. Probably wise!
Florence PughInstagram
Here’s what she wrote:
“Today we shall smile wider than the clouds are grey.
April 6th and we’re celebrating hard!
Happy Birthday wishes, boogies and cheers for this special person.
Raise those bubbles and jiggle!”
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April 9, 2020
Turns out there’s more to that “comments turned off” thing on Florence’s Zach Braff Insta the other day. Apparently, the comments got nasty, so Florence shut that sh*t down and posted a follow-up vid defending her relationship and told people to cool it.
“Seventy percent of the comments [were] hurling abuse and being horrid….I’m 24 years old. I have been working since I was 17 years old. I have been earning money since I was 17 years old. I became an adult when I was 18 years old and I started paying taxes when I was 18 years old,” Florence said.
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“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 someone who they can and cannot love,” she continued. “It is not your place. It has nothing to do with you.”
“The abuse that you throw at him is abuse that you’re throwing at me, and I don’t want those followers…I don’t want that on my page. It’s embarrassing, it’s sad, and I don’t know when cyberbullying became trendy.”
May 7, 2020
Aaand Florence pipes up about the age difference issue yet again, this time in an interview with Elle UK. Instead of shying away, Florence says she has no problem with publicly defending her relationship “because people need to realize that it’s hurtful,” adding that she has “the right to hang out and be with and go out with anyone I want to.”
For the record, Florence is also fully aware that if she dates anyone in the industry, she’s gonna gain a flurry of attention for it. That doesn’t mean she’s cool with people being disrespectful toward her relationship and making constant critiques about her life choices though.
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“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,” Florence continues. “I know that part of being in the spotlight is that people might invade your privacy and have opinions on it, but it’s bizarre that normal folk are allowed to display such hate and opinions on a part of my life that I’m not putting out there. It’s a strange side of fame that you’re allowed to be torn apart by thousands of people even though you didn’t put that piece of you out there.”
Despite the fact that it’s abundantly clear Florence has ~feelings~ on the matter, she’s not gonna dwell on it any longer: “I don’t want to talk about it because it’s not something I want to highlight, but my point to all this is that isn’t it odd that a stranger can totally tear apart someone’s relationship and it’s allowed?” Preach, girl!
November 9, 2020
Because the criticism about their relationship quite literally refuses to cease, Zach had to let it be known how proud he is of Florence for standing her ground against their haters on Instagram.
In an interview with Mr Porter, Zach referred to Florence’s IG post heard round the world and said, “She literally sat down, hit record on her phone and said that. I thought, ‘How could I possibly follow anything as intelligent and articulate as that?’ So, I chose not to.”
That just about brings us up to date, so prepare yourself for more content now that they’re Insta official and please hop outta Florence’s comments if you have an issue with it!
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