Actor Zach Braff, 50, is ageing like fine wine. With his highly anticipated return to ABC's sitcom, 'Scrubs' season 10, take a look at his past relationships and who he is dating these days.
Actor Zach Braff has returned to the headlines for his much-awaited return as 'Dr. John Dorian' in the cult favourite medical comedy drama, Scrubs. After 16 long years of waiting, the makers premiered the show's new season, debuting the first two episodes of Scrubs Season 10 on February 25, 2026. With the third episode, which aired on March 11, 2026, fans are not only revisiting Braff's iconic character as the charming and quirky doctor of Sacred Heart Hospital, but also wondering about his real-life dating scene.
Well, Braff has had a long history of dating high-profile celebrities, including several well-known actresses and models. Now 50, he is the eye candy of Scrubs fans. With his much-awaited return, let's take a look at what Dr. J.D. has been up to in his real-life romance.
While Braff's dating history features a set of celebrated women, his most widely discussed romance was with Oscar-nominated actress Florence Pugh. Yes! - The Last Kiss actor began dating the Black Widow actress in 2019, and in no time, they became a hot topic in the entertainment world. For the most part, their relationship grabbed attention due to their 21-year age difference. For those unaware, Braff was 44 years old when he dated Pugh, who was only 23 in 2019. Many criticised the relationship, whereas some fans rallied in their support.
Despite the flood of criticism, the couple didn't pay any heed to it. Their relationship continued to return to the headlines in the three years that they stayed together. Towards the end of 2022, the pair quietly separated, and they deliberately kept things under wraps. Speaking about the reason they did this, Pugh emotionally told Harper’s Bazaar in 2022:
“We’ve been trying to do this separation without the world knowing, because it’s been a relationship that everybody has an opinion on. We just felt something like this would really do us the benefit of not having millions of people telling us how happy they are that we’re not together. So we’ve done that. I automatically get a lumpy throat when I talk about it.”
Even though the actors were no longer together, Pugh had nothing but good things to say about Braff. To date, the two have remained on good terms. The ex-lovers reunited after the split when the actress starred in Braff's 2023 film, A Good Person. However, while Florence Pugh has been his most well-known ex, Zach Braff's list of exes is quite long. Take a look at some of his earliest Hollywood romances.
Florence Pugh was not the only Hollywood starlet whose relationship with Zach Braff raised eyebrows. In the early 2000s, when Braff was already a reigning star of Scrubs, he met actress-singer Mandy Moore, a rising 20-year-old pop starlet. In 2004, Moore was still recovering from a broken heart following her breakup with popular tennis player Andy Roddick. When she met Braff, nine years her senior, she fell in love. Throughout their two-year romance, Moore and Braff kept their relationship relatively low-key, except for some occasional red carpet appearances. The actress once even starred in a Scrubs episode opposite Braff, playing one of his love interests.
Despite being a much-loved real-life couple after their Scrubs moment, Mandy Moore and Zach Braff called it quits halfway through 2006. While neither commented on the breakup at that time, an insider told Us Weekly that age had become a factor in their relationship, and the breakup was amicable. The source said:
“It was an amicable break. Mandy was very young when they got together, and she wanted to see what’s out there, now that she’s a woman. Zach was mature and realised it is time to let her do that."
The A Walk To Remember actress later admitted that she had written about her and Zach's relationship in some of the songs that were released in her 2007 album titled Wild Hope. The actress-singer herself told Marie Claire that lyrics like “You said you could be good, but somehow you’re guilty / And you’re not even sorry,” were about the Scrubs star.
In 2009, Zach Braff began dating American model Taylor Bagley, and it didn't take them long to make it public. This was one of the Scrubs star's long-term relationships, having dated for about five years. However, they mostly kept their relationship on the down-low, but both kept supporting each other's careers. However, in 2014, they decided to go their separate ways, reportedly ending the relationship on friendly terms due to differing life goals.
Over the years, Zach Braff has been linked to several high-profile names, while some of the relationships turned out to be short-lived. In 2001, he dated his Scrubs co-star, Sarah Chalke, and their romance lasted for almost two years, although it was low-key. Shortly after his split from Mandy Moore, the actor was briefly linked to Charlie's Angels star, Drew Barrymore. While they never officially confirmed the relationship, their frequent public appearances stirred a lot of buzz. Later, the Scrubs actor dated Roswell actress Shiri Appleby in 2007, but the relationship barely lasted a few months before they parted ways.
That same year, Braff briefly dated Spider-Man actress Kirsten Dunst, but that also lasted a few months. His other notable relationship was with actress and singer Bonnie Somerville, who reportedly bonded quickly over their shared sense of humour. The Friends actress, however, maintained a strictly private bond in the few months that she and Braff dated. While the romance didn't last, they have remained close friends.
Now back in the headlines for his Scrubs comeback, the actor appears to be single now, at least publicly. Since his split from Florence Pugh in 2022, he has kept his personal life relatively private. His friend and co-star, Donald Faison, even joked about his single status in last year's Sexiest Man Alive issue. He said:
“This is a single man who is very, very handsome... Someone out there is going to see this [issue] and be like, ‘What a handsome young man this is!’"
With his highly anticipated return to the screen, it remains to be seen where 'J.D.'s love life leads him next. What are your thoughts on Zach Braff's past relationships?
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