For the past year, Brianna LaPaglia, aka Brianna Chickenfry, was in a seemingly happy relationship with singer/songwriter Zach Bryan. However, just a couple weeks after their sudden breakup, LaPaglia has found the courage to speak out about the emotional abuse she allegedly endured behind the scenes.
LaPaglia is best known as a member of the trio on the Barstool Sports-owned “BFFs Podcast” which she co-hosts with internet personality Josh Richards and Barstool owner Dave Portnoy. This podcast often serves as a site for the truth to be shared regarding celebrity gossip and last night, LaPaglia got to unleash her own personal truth as she put any rumors or questions from the public to rest regarding her relationship. Keep reading to learn the five key takeaways from this near-hour-and-a-half episode.
1. Zach Bryan Made A 180 Shift
The pair first met in May 2023, when LaPaglia attended the Academy of Country Music Awards and snapped a photo with Bryan. Fans began to notice a few public appearances between them and in August of 2023, they announced they were exclusive. They made their red carpet debut as a couple at the 2024 Grammys and started to build a life together as LaPaglia joined Bryan on the road for the majority of his latest headline tour, adopted a dog together and even bought a home near her family in Massachusetts.
LaPaglia admits that shortly after his tour ended and she embarked on her own live tour for her other Barstool podcast, PlanBri Uncut, and suddenly noticed a complete “180” shift from Bryan. He abandoned his plans to stay home and enjoy the quiet and instead threw a pop-up show in NYC, stayed out late and completely stopped responding to his other half. Then, Chickenfry got a text from Bryan claiming he “can’t do this anymore.”
“I get home from three weeks on the road of nonstop travel and it’s pretty much like, ‘Hey, it’s time to move out.’ I’m like, ‘what? Can we talk about this? Not even that I want to figure it out. Can we have a conversation about what’s happening? Because I’m f**king lost, bro.’ I am like, ‘are we on two different planets right now? Did we not just build a life together in where I grew up? Did we not just talk about constantly every day getting married and kids? Did we not make video diaries for our children every day?’ I go away for two weeks to give myself a little bit of something and I come home and it’s ‘pack your bags.’ I was gutted, gutted.”
The couple went back and forth a few more times after this, even attempted to work it out until one day Bryan left to return home to Oklahoma and LaPaglia admits that was the last time she saw him. Their official breakup conversation took place over text messages and later that night, fans caught that the “Something In The Orange” singer had made a profile on the dating app, Raya, confirming that he was ready to move on.
2. The Breakup Post
LaPaglia says they had discussed taking at least a week to let the breakup sink in before sharing anything publicly, but Bryan took things into his own hands and unexpectedly posted an Instagram story confirming they had split.
“Brianna and me have broken up with eachother and I respect and love her with every ounce of my heart. She has loved me unconditionally for a very long time and for that I’ll always thank her,” he began. “I have had an incredibly hard year personally and struggled through some pretty severe things. I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to go our different ways.”
He ended his post by claiming that he is “not perfect” and “never will be” and then asked for fans to respect their privacy during this time.
“With everything I am and to anyone I let down, I am sorry. I try my best in everything. I failed people that love me and mostly myself,” Bryan concluded.
LaPaglia addressed their breakup in her own Instagram story post, in which she said she felt “blindsided.”
3. The $12 Million Settlement And NDA
While opening up about the breakup on the BFFs podcast, she revealed that once everything between them had officially come to an end, his team reached out asking her to sign an NDA and also offered her a “big lump sum of money” as well as a house and an apartment in NYC to without information regarding their relationship. She later revealed that amount was $12 million.
“So pretty much after all set, everything was done. I was approached by his team and I was offered a lot of money, like a big lump sum of money and a few options. Basically, I would’ve gotten the money over the course of three years. I would’ve had to sign all of my experiences, everything that I am away to this person. They would’ve been monitoring everything that I do, and at the end of the three years, I’ll receive that big lump sum of money throughout the years.”
LaPaglia admitted she considered the options carefully and ultimately decided she was not going to allow him to have that kind of control over her any longer.
“I don’t want blood money, and I don’t think you can pay people off that you hurt for them to protect you. I think that in itself, offering millions of dollars to this apparent, beautiful relationship to keep it a secret speaks volumes.”
4. A Cycle Of Abuse
Since LaPaglia did not agree to his terms, she now has the freedom to use her platform to speak out on the fact that she been losing herself for months while facing months of emotional abuse. At first, everything seemed great between them, but she now sees that that is when the love bombing truly began. They embarked on a road trip after knowing each other for only a short time and Bryan even got a tattoo of her on his arm, causing her to believe that his heartfelt words and actions were true. Unfortunately, the love bombing soon became intertwined with a toxic cycle of Bryan screaming at her and then apologizing endlessly until he was forgiven.
She specifically described several instances where the alleged abuse was at an all-time high. Once was at her birthday when Bryan had allegedly screamed and “threw jabs” at her friends and family and smashed glass out of rage.
“Basically, Zach just we’re all hanging around the fire and I guess he stood up at the fire and just starts screaming at my friends, ‘you’re not going to be anything. You’re a f**king loser.’ Just the most horrible s**t. ‘You’re never going to make it. You live off of other people.’ Just crazy out of nowhere. And I’m like, ‘what the f**k?’ But when Zach’s in this zone, there’s no containing it. So my aunt’s trying to figure it out, whatever. I bring him up to bed, he smashes glass…ever since then, it was just awful.”
At one point she even held up her phone to show that he allegedly made it a habit of smashing it against the wall.
“I went through literal narcissistic emotional abuse for a year and he made me believe everything was my fault. He isolated me from my whole entire life. He wouldn’t let me be who I wanted to be. He made me hate everything that I loved about myself. He broke me down and then made me feel like he was all I had left. And he just kept repeatedly beating me down and beating me down.”
5. The Golden Globes Dress
She explained that his alleged controlling tendencies took over her personal and professional life, both on social media and off. Another stand-out moment in LaPaglia’s mind was when she attended the Golden Globes in January. After seeing the dress she was wearing in a post on Instagram, Bryan apparently unfollowed her and said he “doesn’t want to date someone who presents herself that way.”
“He ruined my night. Everything good, anything good I did for me, he made sure to ruin it for me. He ruined my birthday. He ruined my tour. He ruined the Golden Globes. Anything Brianna did for Brianna, he had to ruin it,” she explained.
Throughout the podcast, LaPaglia’s co-hosts admitted to their dislike of the singer on multiple occasions and after learning just how much he hurt their friend, they released a diss track. The song titled “Smallest Man,” was aimed at Bryan with lyrics claiming him to be a “liar” and for allegedly joining dating apps immediately after the split. “You f–ked up. / It’s about to get gory / Go post it on your Instagram Story,” they sing.
@internetexpertclipz #daveportnoy #disstrack #zachbryan #briannachickenfryandzachbryan #briannachickenfry #joshrichards #smallestman ♬ original sound – Internet Expert
The track was later taken down from Spotify, which Portnoy cited was due to the fact that Warner Music Group represents both his fellow co-host Richards and Bryan.
The video was edited and reposted to YouTube and Portney assured that he will continue to stick up for Brianna LaPaglia and will “write 10,000 diss tracks, I will go die in the booth.”
Zach Bryan has continued to post on social media without any comments being made about the emotional abuse allegations that LaPaglia detailed on her podcast. He did however release new music today with a song called “High Road.”
Additionally, he is set to return to the road on November 17 to kick off the remaining 17 dates on The Quittin’ Time Tour.
The post 5 Key Moments From Brianna Chickenfry’s Explosive Podcast About Her Toxic Relationship With Zach Bryan appeared first on Country Now.
