Florence Pugh and Paul Mescal spark 'dating' speculation after attending Baftas bash

The screen stars were two of the big names in attendance at the prestigious film awards on Sunday
Florence Pugh (L) and Paul Mescal (R) pictured at Sunday’s Baftas
Getty
Lisa McLoughlin 20 February 2024
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Florence Pugh and Paul Mescal have sparked speculation they are dating following Sunday night’s Baftas.

The screen stars were two of the big names in attendance at the prestigious film awards held at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

Mescal, 28, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Andrew Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers, but lost out to Robert Downey Jr. while Pugh’s film, Oppenheimer, won Best Film on the night.

Following the event, Pugh, also 28, was pictured party-hopping until the early hours of the morning, first at the Universal bash at the Nomad Hotel before attending Netflix’s party at the Chiltern Firehouse.

The Dune: Part Two star reportedly stayed at Marylebone hotspot for the night where she was spotted mingling with Mescal as well as other celebs such as Rosamund Pike, Lily James, and Sacha Baron Cohen.

A source told The Sun: “Florence and Paul move in the same circles and have been mates for some time.

Pugh and Mescal pictured at a pre-Oscars party in 2023
Getty Images for CAA

“If their friendship moved into something more romantic no one would be surprised.”

The Standard has contacted Florence Pugh and Paul Mescal’s representatives for comment.

In October, it was revealed that Pugh had split from photographer Charlie Gooch after a year of dating due to her busy Hollywood career.

Her romance with Gooch came months after Pugh revealed that she had split from former Scrubs star Zach Braff, 47. The former couple started dating in 2019, and the actress confirmed they had quietly broken up in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar in 2022.

She told the outlet: “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.”

Pugh, who worked with Braff on the film, A Good Person, previously spoke to Vogue about why she believed there was so much interest in their relationship.

She said in 2023: “They imagined me with someone younger and someone in blockbusters.

“I think young relationships in Hollywood are so easily twisted because they add to the gossip sites. It’s exciting to watch. And I think I was in a relationship that didn’t do any of that.”

Meanwhile, Mescal previously dated Grammy winning singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers from 2020 to 2022.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in