Florence Pugh Shut Down a Troll Who Criticized Her Age Gap With Zach Braff

From Oprah Magazine

• Florence Pugh earned a 2020 Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod for her work as Amy March in Greta Gerwig's Little Women adaptation.

• The 24-year-old actress had a break0ut year; she recently appeared in Midsommar, Fighting With My Family, and will star in the forthcoming Marvel movie Black Widow.

• She's been dating writer, actor, and director Zach Braff, 44, since 2019.
  

In their 1999 hit song "No Scrubs," the girl group TLC famously warned us against wanting, let alone dating, scrubs (slang for a moocher). "A scrub is a guy that can't get no love from me," they sang.

But Florence Pugh, the 23-year-old breakout star of Little Women, has decided that dating a Scrubs star is a perfectly acceptable enterprise. Pugh has been publicly linked to Zach Braff, the 44-year-old former lead of the long-running hospital comedy Scrubs, since April 2019.

A year ago, Pugh wasn't a household name. Now, she's known for doing the impossible—hence the rumors about her love life. With her ridiculously charming performance, Pugh has changed the public's mind about Amy March. Shaking off her reputation as the March family's resident brat, Amy is now widely considered pragmatic and dignified, with the cutest feet in the family.

Amy's story ends with scoring her longtime crush, Laurie (Timothée Chalamet), having a kid, and later getting involved with her sister's school. But Pugh's is just getting started: With a leading role in Marvel's Black Widow, her career is taking off faster than an exponential equation.

Since Little Women has converted many of us into Florence Pugh fans, we're now invested in her career trajectory and ensuring her needs for lifelong happiness are met. Is Braff part of that equation? Their 21-year age gap has some fans wondering.

For now, though, he seems to be an ingredient to her happiness—so us diehard Pugh devotees must trust her romantic judgement. After all, she's not a little woman!

Here's what we know about Pugh and Braff's relationship.

August 2018: Zach Braff calls Florence Pugh a "movie star."

Braff was bowled over by his future girlfriend's performance in Lady Macbeth, an acclaimed British drama in which Pugh's character is trapped in a love marriage to a much older man.

Based on the gushing tone of this tweet, Braff was an early member of the Pugh hive, so we'll give him points for good judgment. This is also when he started liking Pugh's Instagram posts—and when their Instagram interactions began.

January 2019: Braff visits Oxford, Pugh's hometown.

Pugh was born in 1996 in Oxford, England. Her father, Clinton, owns a restaurant there.

It might be a coincidence that Braff was visiting Oxford. However, Pugh seems to have been home at the same time, posting childhood photos and a photo with her father.

Chances are they had already met by the time they went to Sundance in January 2019, a theory that would debunk this tweet.

April 2019: Pugh stars in Braff's short film.

Braff played his part in turning Pugh into a movie star. She starred in a 19th-century-themed short film called In the Time It Takes to Get There, which Braff wrote and directed.

April 12, 2019: They're finally spotted in public.

This is the moment everyone knew the truth: Zach Braff and Florence Pugh were dating.

While it came as a surprise to some, there were already traces of their relationship: Pugh had appeared on Braff's Instagram Story the week before.

June 2019: Braff hangs out with Pugh's brother.

Florence Pugh's brother, Tony Sebastian, is an actor as well. He's best known for playing Trystane Martell in Game of Thrones.

August 5, 2019: They attend a wedding together.

Someone at the wedding, which took place in the U.K., posted a photo of the couple slow dancing.

Not sold? Look at their outfits in these photos, posted on the same day.

August 2019: They vacation in Spain.

After going to a wedding, Braff and Pugh crossed yet another relationship milestone in August: Vacation, baby. A mutual friend posted a photo of them together seeming quite happy.

While Braff and Pugh didn't post photos of each other on Instagram, they shared pictures with a similar view on the same day, August 17.

November 2019: They go to the happiest place on Earth.

In November, Braff posted a photo of them together in Disneyland.

October 2019: Braff says he loves Pugh—sort of.

Braff posted a photo of four people, including Pugh, and wrote "people I love" in the caption. So that technically means he loves her, too.

December 2019: They hang out with friends ahead of the Little Women premiere.

They attended the premiere separately, even though it was pretty obvious they were an item by then.

December 16, 2019: Pugh confirms the relationship with an iconic clap-back.

Until this moment, Pugh and Braff hadn't acknowledged their relationship publicly, even though it was clear they were dating. Then came this photo.

Braff commented with a princess emoji (he loves commenting with emojis, as followers of this romance know), and one user responded, "you're 44 years old." Pugh herself wrote back, "and yet he got it."

January 11, 2020: Pugh and Braff go on date night.

Like the photo of them holding hands in April 2019, this paparazzi photo is taken as proof of their relationship status.

January 13, 2020: Pugh gets an Oscar nomination.

She posted her reaction in a series of two photos.

Considering Alex Rodriguez filmed his fiancée, Jennifer Lopez, after she got her Golden Globes nomination, who do you surmise took these photos? Who but Braff!

For now, not much is known about their relationship. But you better believe we'll be watching the Oscars red carpet with a hawk eye, finely tuned for the subtle clues of relationship progressions.

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