A revolving door of younger women?
A temporary relocation to Budapest?
We should have known that Florence Pugh and Zach Braff were doomed from the start.
The age gap
Zach Braff is 21 years older than Florence Pugh, but age gaps aren't uncommon in Hollywood.
In some cases, this difference in age feels a little uncomfortable.
In other cases, it makes sense.
In Pugh's case, it was a constant source of negative commentary that was difficult for
her to navigate.
The backlash was so severe, in fact, that the actor couldn't post a photo of her boyfriend
on Instagram without having to close the comments.
Throughout the years, Pugh regularly defended her romance.
In 2020, for example, the star posted a nearly four-minute plea rallying against cyberbullying.
"I am 24 years old.
I do not need you to tell me who I should and should not love."
She went even more in-depth during an appearance on the podcast "Sue Perkins: An Hour or So
With..."
She said:
"I've always found it funny, how I can be good enough for people to watch my work, and
support my work, and pay for tickets, and I'm old enough to be an adult and pay taxes,
but I'm not old enough to know who I should and should not have sex with."
Sadly, the fan backlash outlived the couple's relationship: When news of a split surfaced,
one Twitter user even joked that Pugh checked Braff into the retirement home.
Everyone's a critic
Florence Pugh struggled with the commentary surrounding her relationship with Zach Braff
— and their 21-year age gap was just one small part of that.
The criticism and speculation seemed to grow as her fame soared between Midsommar and Black
Widow.
The star even had to defend her choice to bring her parents to the 2020 Oscars ceremony
instead of her boyfriend.
As Pugh later told Elle, it wasn't meant to throw any shade.
She said:
"It's a strange side of fame that you're allowed to be torn apart by thousands of people even
though you didn't put that piece of you out there.
My point to all this is that isn't it odd that a stranger can totally tear apart someone's
relationship and it's allowed?"
By the end of their relationship, Pugh had battled so much criticism that Us Weekly was
able to publish a multi-page feature outlining every single time she spoke out.
It seemed exhausting, to say the least — and that's just for fans reading the headlines.
Dating in the spotlight
Florence Pugh wasn't the only one who struggled with dating in the spotlight, however.
For years, Zach Braff tried his best to avoid famous girlfriends because he hated being
followed by fans and paparazzi.
The star got his first taste of the media circus in 2004 when he started dating Mandy
Moore.
Braff went from rarely gracing a tabloid to having paparazzi waiting outside of his house.
As he later said on The Howard Stern Show, when they broke up two years later, his publicist
recommended he avoid famous women altogether because of the hassle.
"If you're gonna hook up with a famous girl, that might be fun for your ego, but you don't
want to be out in public dating a famous girl because then they really follow you wherever
you go."
The problem, perhaps, was that Pugh wasn't a mega-star when she first started dating
Braff — at least, not in the United States.
That quickly changed with the back-to-back release of A24's critically acclaimed horror
flick Midsommar and Greta Gerwig's star-studded adaptation of Little Women.
The latter scored the actor her first Academy Award nomination.
Then, in 2021, she joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Yelena Belova in Black Widow.
It doesn't get much bigger than that.
Bachelor life
Fans have long known Zach Braff to be something of a bachelor, and, compared to other celebrities,
he has a very short dating history.
In the two decades since the debut of Scrubs made him a household name, he's only publicly
dated four women.
And if you want to believe the tabloids, part of Braff's habitual singlehood has to do with
an alleged fear of settling down.
After Braff and Mandy Moore split in 2006, the star began dating actor Shiri Appleby.
According to Life & Style, the pair lasted about a year before calling it quits in 2008.
The reason?
Appleby allegedly wanted a family, and Braff couldn't imagine settling down before his
forties.
A source told the outlet:
"[She] wasn't interested in a casual relationship.
She knows what she wants, and Zach wasn't ready to commit to that."
After that, Braff entered his longest relationship to date.
He dated supermodel Taylor Bagley from 2009 to 2014, then appeared to spend five years
single before coupling up with Florence Pugh.
A lot can change in over a decade, but maybe Braff is still a bachelor at heart.
As an insider explained to The Mirror in 2021:
"Zach has this reputation like he's Charlie Harper on Two and a Half Men — this kind
of lazy bachelor with a revolving door of younger women in his life."
The long game
Did the threat of distance do the couple in?
Though Florence Pugh reportedly moved into Zach Braff's Los Angeles mansion, her career
was about to send her packing.
Right now, Pugh is filming Dune: Part Two — and while it's not actually taking place
on another planet, the set is still nowhere near Tinseltown.
Production on the sci-fi sequel began in July 2022.
The filming locations include Budapest, Hungary; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Jordan; and
Italy.
Much of the first movie was filmed in the Middle East, but Italy is reportedly a brand-new
addition.
Regardless, it's all pretty far from Los Angeles.
If Braff wanted to pop over to Abu Dhabi, he'd be looking at a 16-hour flight from LAX,
minimum.
It's unclear how long Pugh will be abroad, too.
The first movie took about four months to shoot, excluding some scenes that were reshot
in Budapest in 2020.
That being said, Zendaya played a major role and spent just a week on set in the Middle
East.
Either way, there's a good chance that Pugh's shooting schedule put the final nail in the
coffin of their relationship.