Florence Pugh: People have ‘no right’ to criticize Zach Braff relationship

Florence Pugh doesn’t need the world’s approval when it comes to her relationship with Zach Braff. “I have the right to hang out and be with and go out with anyone I want to,” the “Little Women” actress, 24, said in the June 2020 issue of Elle UK. The duo was first linked last fall, …

Florence Pugh doesn’t need the world’s approval when it comes to her relationship with Zach Braff.

“I have the right to hang out and be with and go out with anyone I want to,” the “Little Women” actress, 24, said in the June 2020 issue of Elle UK.

The duo was first linked last fall, and Pugh soon found herself defending her budding romance with the “Scrubs” star, 45. In December, a commenter on social media called out the couple’s 21-year age gap. The Oscar nominee replied to the post, commenting “And yet he got it” — a response she acknowledged in the current Elle interview as “necessary” because “people need to realize that it’s hurtful.”

Pugh added that she’s “always found this part of what people do,” in reference to trolling, “really bizarre.”

“I’m an actor because I like acting and I don’t mind people watching my stuff, but people have no right to educate me on my private life,” Pugh continued in the interview.

Though Pugh understands what comes with the territory of fame, she has no tolerance for negativity.

“I know that part of being in the spotlight is that people might invade your privacy and have opinions on it, but it’s bizarre that normal folk are allowed to display such hate and opinions on a part of my life that I’m not putting out there,” 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.”

“I don’t want to talk about it because it’s not something I want to highlight, but 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?” she continued.

Meanwhile, just last month, Pugh found herself, once again, defending her relationship after posting an Instagram of Braff on his birthday.

“I do not need you to tell me who I should and should not love. And I would never in my life, ever, ever tell anyone who they can and cannot love. It is not your place,” she said in response to the post’s critics.