Florence Pugh Dishes on New Relationship 2 Years After Split From Zach Braff

In a new cover story for British Vogue, the We Live in Time star confirmed that two years after breaking up with Zach Braff, she’s dating someone new.

“We are figuring what we actually are,” Pugh she said of her mystery partner in the interview published Sept. 18. “And I think for the first time, I’m not allowing myself to go on a roller-coaster. 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.”

She continued, “Something that I resonate with is that I believe that if magic is real, then it’s falling in love. And I am someone that loves falling in love. 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.”

And what exactly is Pugh looking for?

“Safety, family, a home,” the Oscar-nominee said. “And security.”

All of which, she realized, in part, while working on We Live in Time, with co-star, Andrew Garfield, as the drama follows the relationship between the pair as they grapple with the finite aspect of time in the wake of a tragic diagnosis.

“I was at the right age for this movie to land,” the 28-year-old actress said. “I was going through a lot of weird stuff with relationships last year and I think part of the story is to not be passive, is not to let things wash over you. I want to go and find love and I want to have babies.”

“I’ve always been thinking about starting a family,” she shared, telling the outlet that it’s something she’s never shied away from. “I’ve wanted to have kids since I was a child myself. I love the idea of a big family. I come from a big family. I love kids.”

Pugh continued, “If ever there’s a dinner party, I go straight to the kids to chat to them. So much easier. I love the honesty. I love how bored they can get.”

So for Pugh, it’s less of a matter of if, and more of “just figuring out when.”

While she stayed relatively silent about her new relationship, that’s due in part to her more public romance with Braff, which ended in 2022.

“I had to be public in the past because people were bullying me and bullying my partner,” she explained of her relationship with Braff, who was 20 years her senior. “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. And that’s when I spoke out.”

She continued, “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. I think any relationship in this limelight is going to be stressed.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Pugh was asked about the drama surrounding her 2022 movie, Don’t Worry Darling amid rumors about rifts amongst the cast and her relationship with the film’s director, Olivia Wilde, but two years on and many movies later, she prefers to speak about the projects she’s currently promoting.

“There’s so many times when I’ve been doing press for a movie, and I am asked questions about [Don’t Worry Darling],” Pugh said. “I always think it’s unfair to take the space away from the movie that I’m talking about.”

She added of public scrutiny, a lot which she faced while promoting that film: “It’s so hard. [The internet’s] a very mean place. It’s really painful to read people being nasty about my confidence or nasty about my weight. It never feels good. The one thing I always wanted to achieve was to never sell someone else, something that isn’t the real me…. I don’t think it’s confidence in hoping people like me. I think it’s just, like, I don’t want to be anyone else.”