Florence Pugh Defends Boyfriend Zach Braff After He Was Bullied for Their 21-Year Age Gap

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

From ELLE

Florence Pugh made her relationship with Zach Braff Instagram official on Monday to celebrate his birthday—and she promptly disabled comments on the post when she noticed people were attacking him for dating her because he is 21 years her senior.

Pugh posted a nearly 4-minute video yesterday explaining why she will not tolerate people abusing him or questioning her love life decisions. "I am 24 years old," she said. "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 anyone who they can and cannot love. It is not your place. And really, it has nothing to do with you. So if those rules are something that you do not like, then please unfollow me because the abuse that you throw at him is abuse that you’re throwing at me."

Ariana Grande was a fan of Pugh's remarks, commenting on the post, "'being hateful is not trendy' a new tattoo for my chest. oh i love and appreciate u so much."

Here, Pugh's full remarks:

I’ve been wrestling for the past few days over whether I should even do this video and then finally last night I thought oh well, for my own peace of mind, I should. On Monday, I posted a photo in honor 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 and basically bullying someone on my page. It is the first time in my entire Instagram life that I have had to turn off the comments on my page. I have never been an Instagram page that encourages that. I have never been an Instagram page that likes that toxic vibe. I have only been an Instagram page that tries to bring some light and tries to be positive and tries to make people smile.

I will not allow that behavior on my page. I’m not about that. It makes me upset. It makes me sad that during this time, when we really all need to be together, we need to be supporting one another, we need to be loving one another—the world is aching, and the world is dying, and a few of you decided to bully for no reason.

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. I 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 ever, ever tell anyone who they can and cannot love. It is not your place. And really, it has nothing to do with you.

So if those rules are something that you do not like, then please unfollow me because 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 to have to be protecting you know, my comments every time I post a picture of him. I really hope that I can continue this relationship with a lot of you, and I can keep on cooking, and I can keep on dancing, and I can keep on singing, but I don’t want that on my page. It’s embarrassing. It’s sad. And I don’t know when cyberbullying became trendy. I don’t know when it became a point system. I don’t know why it’s a cool thing, and that’s never been what my page has been about so, here’s to you guys. And I hope that we can keep on being positive. And to those who do not agree with any of the things that I’ve just said, I kindly ask that you unfollow me because that is not my page. Be safe, try and be positive during all of this, and I’ll see you soon.

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