When Mandy Moore and Zach Braff started dating in 2004, they were considered something of an unlikely couple. She was a squeaky clean 20-year-old pop starlet and teen movie lead; he was nine years her senior and the star of Scrubs, as well as a respected actor-director on the indie film scene.
Two decades later, and with Moore now highly-respected herself following her success on This Is Us, it somehow makes a little more sense.
So, why didn’t it work out? Keep scrolling to find out what happened:
How it Began
Moore was getting over a broken heart following the end of her high-profile relationship with tennis player Andy Roddick when she and Braff met on the Hollywood scene in 2004. They quietly started dating, first being spotted together at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles — arriving in separate cars, but spending the evening locked together.
How Long It Lasted
Mandy Moore and Zach Braff in 2005 Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
During their two-year romance, the pair mostly kept things on the downlow, occasionally being spotted together cuddling in public while grabbing lunch around Los Angeles, but also made a few red carpet appearances together, including at the 2006 Golden Globes. “I thought people knew we were dating and just knew we were quiet about it,” Moore told Cosmopolitan at the time. “We’d been photographed together before.”
One of the high points of their relationship was when Moore guest-starred on Scrubs — as Braff’s love interest! In 2023, she told The AV Club that she had fond memories of the experience. “I loved it,” she said. “I was dating Zach Braff at the time, so I spent a lot of time on that set. I felt comfortable around everyone, so it felt like an easy foray for dipping my toes into TV. Honestly, I was flattered they asked me. It wasn’t an assumption that I’d cameo because he’s my boyfriend. It’s a beloved show. I was honored that was my first experience.”
How It Ended
Halfway through 2006, they sadly called it quits. “They both decided that after two years, Mandy was a little young,” an insider told Us Weekly exclusively in June that year. “Zach was ready for something different and they wanted to just kind of test the waters a little bit. 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.”
Mandy Moore and Zach Braff in 2004 BAUER-GRIFFIN.COM
What They Said About Each Other
This private pair didn’t give much away during their time together, but in 2006, Moore told Elle that Braff was just her type. “I like a good Jewish boy,” she said. “With a sense of humor.”
Around the same time, she also revealed to Cosmo why she thought they worked so well together. “It’s just nice to be with anyone who’s supportive of what you do and proud of you and respects you and respects your work,” she said. “I feel lucky to be with someone who’s like that.”
What They Say Now
Mandy Moore and Zach Braff in 2006 Michael Caulfield/WireImage for InStyle Magazine
Following the split, both opened up a little more — in fact, Moore opened up via her music, with some of her 2007 album “Wild Hope” being inspired by the relationship and subsequent split.
“I’m sure he’ll hear all about the record,” she told Marie Claire. “[The] poor guy’s probably heard about it in every interview.”
Lyrics like, “You said you could be good, but somehow you’re guilty / And you’re not even sorry,” were said to be about Braff — but Moore was vague about the details. “It doesn’t worry me because the record’s not necessarily all about him,” she said. “It’s my point of view and my experience. I wouldn’t know what else to write about other than how I really feel. But selfishly or not, I wanted clarity on certain situations and how I was feeling about certain things, and that’s what propelled me to write.”
She added that she and Braff “weren’t, like, a big ‘going out’ couple” but said their split was “a bummer” and the icing of “a really bad cake. The burned cake” of what was a difficult time for the star.
In 2007, she also told Jane magazine: “A few months ago I felt really low, really sad. Depressed for no reason. I’m a very positive person, and I’ve always been glass-half-full. So it was like someone flipped a switch in me. I wanted to figure out why. The breakup added to what I was going through, but it’s not the complete reason. It definitely doesn’t help if you’re already in that place.”
Ultimately, recording the album helped Moore get over two high-profile splits in a row. “Writing has been really therapeutic,” she said. “These little nuggets that have come up over the past eight months have made me look at things in a different way.”
Braff spoke negatively about the relationship — or, at least, the storm around it — when he went on The Howard Stern Show in 2014 and was asked about dating celebrities. “Remember, I did that once before when I dated Mandy Moore and it was not a good — I didn’t like it,” he said. He went on: “When my relationship with Mandy ended, she [my publicist] said, ‘I’m going to give you a hint that you should know. If you don’t date these 25 girls, your life will be so much easier.’ And she was kind of exaggerating because there’s more than those 25 girls, but in so many words, if you can, don’t date other famous people. If you’re going to hook up with a famous girl, that might be fun for your ego, but you don’t want to be out in public dating a famous girl because then they follow you everywhere you go.”
And yet, following the split from Moore, he was linked with some pretty famous women — most notably Florence Pugh, who he dated from 2019 to 2022: the relationship was polarizing, given their 21 year age gap.
Florence Pugh learned some important lessons from her romance with Zach Braff that she is taking into her new relationship. “I had to be public in the past because people were bullying me and bullying my partner,” the actress, 28, told British Vogue in an interview published on Wednesday, September 18. “Mine and Zach’s relationship […]
Key Relationship Takeaways
Zach Braff and Mandy Moore in 2005 ©BAUER-GRIFFIN.COM
It seems like this was a coming of age thing for Moore — and she did a lot of growing up in the process. “I’ve been going through this really crazy time in my life,” she told Jane after the split. “It’s what I imagine people fresh out of college go through. I’m asking myself life-altering questions, like ‘Who am I? Where do I fit in this world? What am I doing, what do I want to do? Am I living to my full potential?”
Moore’s next big relationship was with singer-songwriter Ryan Adams, but they divorced in 2016 after six years of marriage. Now, she’s settled down with Taylor Goldsmith, who she married in 2018, and the cute couple have their hands full with three children under four: sons August, born in 2021, and Oscar, born in 2022, and daughter Louise, born in 2024.
Braff, meanwhile, is currently in an even bigger age gap relationship than his previous ones: he’s dating singer Frances Whitney, who is 24 years his junior.
