Zach Braff says he and Florence Pugh still ‘love each other a lot’ after breakup

Zach Braff has given fans an update on his relationship with ex-girlfriend Florence Pugh.

During a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, the 48-year-old filmmaker revealed that they are still friendly more than one year after announcing their split. "Well, we love each other. We love each other and we’re friends,” Braff said on 14 December.

Braff even sent the Don’t Worry Darling star, 27, pictures of his outfit before appearing on live television earlier that day. “I was on the Today show this morning, and she said she wanted to see pictures of what my outfit was to give approvals, so we love each other a lot,” Braff told Cagle.

The Scrubs alum was promoting his latest film, A Good Person, which starred Pugh and was released earlier this year. During the interview, he praised the British actor’s talents and expressed how grateful he felt to have worked alongside her. In the film, Pugh stars as Allison, a woman struggling with addiction and depression following her involvement in a fatal car crash that kills her fiancé’s sister. Allison forms an unlikely friendship with her fiancé’s father, Daniel (played by Morgan Freeman), who is attempting to raise his 18-year-old granddaughter (played by Celeste O’Connor).

“Listen, I think it’s pretty clear across the world that I’m not biased when I say that she is one of the finest actresses working today and I think anyone who gives watching A Good Person a chance will see that she’s just extraordinary,” Braff said. He explained how he wrote the character of Allison with Pugh in mind and raved about her performance, describing his ex as a “young Meryl Streep”.

“I just feel so lucky that I got to have her be my leading lady,” he added.

In August 2022, the Little Women star revealed that she and Braff had quietly split after three years of dating. “We’ve been trying to do this separation without the world knowing, because it’s been a relationship that everybody has an opinion on,” Pugh said in a cover story for Harper’s Bazaar September 2022 issue.

“We just felt something like this would really do us the benefit of not having millions of people telling us how happy they are that we’re not together. So we’ve done that,” she explained, adding: “I automatically get a lumpy throat when I talk about it.”

Throughout their relationship, which began in 2019, the pair had often attracted criticism for their 21-year age gap. Back in 2020, Pugh called out online trolls after she shared a rare photo of Braff to mark his 45th birthday. She was forced to turn comments off on her post due to the barrage of negative remarks from users pointing out their age difference. In a short video, Pugh said she received thousands of comments from people akin to “bullying” and stressed she will “not allow that behaviour” on her social media page.

In a January interview with Vogue, Pugh reflected on criticism over her and Braff’s age difference, suggesting that fans “just didn’t like” her relationship and preferred her to be with “someone younger”.

“We weren’t in anyone’s faces. It was just that people didn’t like it,” she said. “They imagined me with someone younger and someone in blockbusters. I think young relationships in Hollywood are so easily twisted because they add to the gossip sites. It’s exciting to watch. And I think I was in a relationship that didn’t do any of that.”

Despite their breakup, the pair reunited for the premiere of A Good Person in March. In addition to supporting each other on the red carpet, Braff has continued to praise Pugh’s acting skills, telling The Guardian that he was “in awe” of her performance during the film.