Florence Pugh Opened Up About the Criticism She Gets for Dating Zach Braff
She said he's not who fans "expected" her to date—as if it's any of their business.
Florence Pugh is in a loving relationship, so let’s all just bug off, okay? In case you aren’t familiar with Pugh’s beau, it’s Zach Braff, aka JD from Scrubs, or if you want to get real nostalgic, he voiced the young chicken on Chicken Little. And since he’s 21 years older than Pugh, people are spiraling out of control and hating on photos of him or them together on Pugh’s Instagram—and they’ve been doing so ever since they went public. Because that’ll definitely break them up, right? Random strangers leaving nasty comments on a photo will surely get their way.
In her July 4th interview with The Sunday Times, the Black Widow actress opened up about the “bullying” she’s received since publicly sharing her relationship with Braff, adding that the public refuses to accept the idea of them as a couple because it’s “not who they expected.”
It’s so weird to me to go on to someone’s page and shit on it, Pugh told the outlet. That’s so not my nature — to go and bully for the sake of bullying. It’s such an odd thing that we’ve become OK with in the past ten years of social media.
She went on to demonstrate that Instagram will never be that “nicer place” people want it to be if everyone continues to post negativity on each other’s pages. “[Instagram users] want to see nice things. They want to be inspired and they want to be happy,” she continued. “I don’t mind you not liking me. That’s absolutely fine. In which case, don’t follow me.” Seems like a pretty sensible solution, no?
Back in April 2020, the hate toward her and Braff had gotten so ugly that Pugh had to post an Instagram video captioned, Being hateful is not trendy. This was shared right after Braff’s birthday post, which is referenced in the clip.
“About 70% of the comments were hurling abuse, being horrid, and basically bullying someone on my page,” Pugh began the video. “It is the first time in my Instagram life that I’ve had to turn off the comments on my page.”
“I’m 24 years old. I do not need you to tell me who I should and should not love. It is not your place and really it has nothing to do with you.”
Pugh told The Sunday Times that she just wants to “be a person” and it’s not in her nature to do “anything to please people or to make it a better headline or story.” And if you don’t like what you see, then there’s an unfollow button right there waiting for you.
