Zach Braff penned a loving social media tribute to his girlfriend of three years, Florence Pugh, to commemorate her 26th birthday.
The Scrubs star posted a photo of Pugh resting her head on the edge of a pool to his Instagram Stories on Monday. He tagged the actress, writing over the shot, “Happy birthday to this beautiful human being. I am so lucky to know you. And the world is so lucky they get to witness your incredible talent.” He also posted a second image of his girlfriend sitting in a chair in front of a window with his dog Billie alongside her. Pugh reposted the tribute on her own Instagram Stories, adding a red heart emoji on top.
The pair have been dating since 2019 after they first met while working together on the short film In the Time It Takes to Get There. They’ve largely kept their romance private, however, as Pugh has often had to defend their 20-year age gap, even to her own fans. In June 2020, after calling out rude comments directed towards her relationship on social media, the Black Widow star told Elle UK, “I have the right to hang out and be with and go out with anyone I want to. I’ve always found this part of what people do 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 also celebrated turning another year older on Instagram on Monday, posting a series of photos of herself with a fresh pixie cut, baby blue turtleneck, plaid skirt, and chunky white platform sneakers. In the lengthy caption, she wrote, “My older sister told me last night, ‘it just gets better and better,’ I remember that not really meaning much when I was younger. But it is magical how with each year you grow you actually begin to slow, speed up again, slow down again, soften, understand your brain, understand your anxieties, understand why you are the way that you are and just slowly begin to be okay with it. 26 years of an unbelievable amount of incredible special people who have taught me, loved me, educated me. Some still here, some not.” She continued, “I’m always so amazed to have friends and family travel on this random day of the year, I’m always so grateful to have fans send messages and videos and voice notes and birthday letters. I truly truly appreciate you all and can’t believe how lucky I am to have you following and joining this journey. See you when I’ve probably had too many martinis on InstaStories later. Happy 3rd Y’all. Have an awesome day, pop open the bubbles!”
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