Florence Pugh made rare comments about her relationship with ex-boyfriend Zach Braff.
The 28-year-old actress spoke to British Vogue in an interview published Wednesday about dating Braff, 49, and the criticism they faced because of their 21-year age difference.
“I had to be public in the past because people were bullying me and bullying my partner,” said Pugh, who dated the “Scrubs” star from 2019 to 2022.
“Mine and Zach’s relationship was actually quite private until it was nasty, and I could see the toll that it was taking on him and us and our families,” the Oscar nominee explained. “And that’s when I spoke out.”
Pugh went on, “I think for anyone I’m with, I want to protect them. It’s not nice knowing that people are saying the worst things I’ve ever read about someone that I love. So that was necessary. I needed to talk about it. I think any relationship in this limelight is going to be stressed.”
The pair started dating after working together on the 2019 short film “It Takes Time to Get There.”
Their age gap prompted backlash from social media trolls, which forced Pugh to defend the romance in April 2020 after she shared a birthday tribute to Braff that elicited negative reactions.
“Within about eight minutes of the photo being posted, I had about 70 people in the comments hurling abuse and being horrid, and basically bullying someone on my page,” she said in an Instagram video at the time.
“I would never in my life ever, ever tell someone who they can and cannot love,” Pugh also said. “It is not your place. And really, it has nothing to do with you. The abuse that you throw at him is abuse that you throw at me.”
Braff addressed the “Midsommar” actress’ decision to come to his defense in a Nov. 2020 interview.
“She literally sat down, hit record on her phone and said that,” he revealed. “I thought: how could I possibly follow anything as intelligent and articulate as that? So, I chose not to.”
Despite splitting in 2022, Braff and Florence have remained friendly. Braff said on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show” last year that the exes still “love each other” and are “friends.”
Pugh revealed to British Vogue that she’s in a new relationship, though she didn’t divulge the identity of her mystery man.
“OK, so something that I resonate with is that I believe that if magic is real, then it’s falling in love,” she shared. “And I am someone that loves falling in love. I love looking after people. I love caring for people. I love the feeling of someone being there. I love knowing that someone is thinking about me and someone cares for me in the same way that I’m thinking about caring for them.”
“I think in this portion of my life, I’m trying to make sure that I’m making all the right decisions so that I can have the thing that I want… which is safety, family, a home and security,” the “Oppenheimer” star continued, adding that she and her new man are “figuring out what we actually are.”
“And I think for the first time, I’m not allowing myself to go on a roller-coaster,” she said. “I’m allowing myself to take time to let something evolve and let it be completely real to its core, as opposed to racing into that.”