Florence Pugh became an obsession after breaking out in A24's indie horror Midsommar, and then stealing the show in Grega Gerwig's indomitable Little Women. She has an upcoming role in Black Widow, and is poised to be a huge deal in Hollywood. She's also become a cult figure on Instagram for her goofy, wholesome persona and cooking videos.
There's just one thing people don't quite get: the British 24-year-old is dating the 45-year-old Scrubs and Garden State actor Zach Braff.
The relationship has become the subject of ample memes and trolling. Part of the confusion is the 21 year age gap, yes. However, it's not as if gawkers are unaccustomed to seeing young female celebrities with older male ones. The inherent strangeness of the coupling has much more to do with the mismatch of clout: Pugh is the It girl of the moment and Braff, bless his heart, is J.D. from Scrubs.
In any case, Pugh's doesn't care why you think it's weird she's dating a 45-year-old former sitcom star. After trolls blew up a birthday post she made for Braff's 45th, Pugh posted a long video titled "My relationship with Instagram" on her grid today, asking people to please stop being so damn rude to her boyfriend.
"Within about eight minutes of the video being posted," Pugh said, "I had about seventy percent of the comments hurling abuse and being horrid and, basically, bullying someone on my page." She eventually turned comments off on the post.
"I'll underline this fact: I am 24 years old. I do not need you to tell me who I should and should not love. And I would never in my life tell anyone, ever, who they can and cannot love. It is not your place, and really, it has nothing to do with you. If those rules are something you do not like then please unfollow me because abuse you throw at him is abuse you're throwing at me."
Her post was met with adoring comments, including from a fellow celebrity whose had her dating choices scrutinized. "'Being hateful is not trendy' a new tattoo for my chest," wrote Ariana Grande, who also posted "oh i love and appreciate u so much."
Look, Pugh and Braff are both talented actors who probably have a nice time talking about acting stuff. They reportedly met on the set of 2019's In The Time It Takes To Get There (about if there were influencers in the 19th century), which Braff wrote and Pugh starred in. They seem very happy together. Prior to the birthday incident, a hater wrote "you're 44 year old" in response to Braff dropping an emoji on one of Pugh's photos. Pugh chimed in: "And yet he got it 👌🏽."
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