Florence Pugh has learned the hard way that sometimes silence is the best form of self-preservation.
The Thunderbolts star recently opened up about why she’s chosen to keep her romantic life private — and how the backlash she faced over her past relationship with actor-director Zach Braff played a major role in that decision.
“With relationships and with romance in this world, it doesn’t matter how much you speak on it or how little you speak on it, people don’t care. They want a story,” Florence shared on The Louis Theroux Podcast.
She continued, “They sort of want a reality show, and so it doesn’t really matter how much you say you love someone or how much they make you happy, if they don’t like them and it doesn’t fit that image that they want of you, they don’t care.”
Florence’s relationship with Braff, who’s 21 years her senior, became a lightning rod for online criticism. “There was an insane amount of abuse being hurled at my relationship just because there was an age gap,” she said.
Her instinct was to protect the people she cares about. “I’ll always defend people that I love, I will always stand up for them,” she explained. “If there needs to be a reset and a bit of a smack on the wrist, I will do that because it’s not fair that so much of your life gets to have jabs.”
Back in April 2020, Florence posted an Instagram video addressing the harassment head-on. “Within about eight minutes of the photo being posted, I had about 70 percent of the comments hurling abuse and being horrid,” she recalled. “It is the first time in my entire Instagram life that I’ve had to turn off the comments on my page.”
She continued, “It got to the point where it was just really horrible to see someone that you are with receiving that, and it was never at me, it was only at him. And I think I just needed to kind of just check everyone.”
Despite the chaos, Florence said she was moved by the outpouring of support after posting her video. “Lots of people were supportive, which was great. I do think people online need to be reminded that we’re real.”
And with that, Florence Pugh has drawn her line — no more oversharing, no more feeding the spectacle. Just talent, work, and peace.
