Zach Braff got sentimental as he wished his girlfriend, Florence Pugh, a happy 25th birthday on Sunday, January 3.
“Happy Birthday to the most fun person I’ve ever met,” the 45-year-old captioned four photos on Instagram that showed the British actress goofing off while on a hike in the Hollywood Hills, and posing for a selfie on a plane with the Scrubs star. “I would have felt blessed to have smiled with your for one night. I can’t believe I get to giggle with you everyday. What a pleasure it is to know you. What a gift to the world it was that you were born.”
The Midsommar actress shared his post on her Instagram Story along with a red heart and posted videos of herself celebrating her big day with music by Crowded House and large gold balloons.
In a series of videos she posted in the hours before her big day, Pugh urged her followers to pat themselves on the back after the year everyone has experienced amid COVID-19 and quarantine and asked them to give themselves a day to do “whatever it is you want to do, like eat ice cream for breakfast or have cereal for dinner.”
Braff and Pugh were first linked in April 2019 and have faced criticism over their two-decade age difference.
The Little Women actress has hit back at trolls who expressed disapproval of their romance and spoke out in a video in April 2020, after she got “horrid” messages when she posted a birthday message to Braff.
“I have never been an Instagram page that likes the toxic vibe. I have only been an Instagram page that tried to bring some light and tries to be positive and tries to make people smile,” she said in a video to her followers. “I will not allow [bullying] on my page. I’m not about that. It makes me upset. It makes me sad during this time — when we really all need to be together, we need to be supporting one another, we need to be loving one another. The world is aching and the world is dying and a few of you decided to bully for no reason.”
“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 someone who they can and cannot love. It is not your place. And really it has nothing to do with you,” she added. “The abuse that you throw at him is abuse that you throw at me.”
Three months later, she spoke out about the “ridiculous” disapproval of their relationship during an interview with British TV host Sue Perkins.
“I’m old enough to be an adult and pay taxes, but I’m not old enough to know who I should and should not have sex with,” she said on the “Sue Perkins: An Hour of So With…” podcast. “Once again, [it’s] making a young woman feel like s–t for no reason. I think I did feel [like] s–t for a while about admitting that, and then I thought, ‘How ridiculous is that?’”
The Fighting With My Family star added, “There’s a reason why I’m not with someone my age — it hasn’t worked.”
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