Brianna LaPaglia, aka Brianna Chickenfry, is accusing her ex, country musician Zach Bryan, of emotional abuse throughout their relationship. She also claims that he offered her $12 million to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
During a recent episode of the “BFFs” podcast, which she co-hosts with Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards, the internet star stated, “This episode of me not taking the money, like it’s not just for me. It’s for anyone else who has been emotionally abused, for those who are currently being emotionally abused, and for people who don’t have the support structure that I was fortunate to have while going through this.”
She went on, “And the last year of my life has been the most difficult year of my life, coping with the abuse from this guy. I am still worried right now because I am still afraid of him; my brain has been rewired. “I’m afraid of making him angry.”
LaPaglia’s charges came two weeks after Bryan announced the couple’s split, apologizing to anybody he “let down.”
“She has loved me unconditionally for a very long time, and for that I’ll always thank her,” he wrote in an October social media post. “I’ve had a really difficult year personally, going through some fairly serious stuff. I figured it would be better for both of us to go our separate ways.”
He said, “I am not perfect and never will be.”
Hours after his post, LaPaglia posted a YouTube video of herself sitting on her bathroom floor, stating that she was “blindsided” by Bryan’s breakup post, that he hadn’t warned her he was going to post it, and that she had intended to cope with their divorce discreetly.
She couldn’t understand how someone could love someone “so unconditionally through stuff that you shouldn’t because you just love them, like you see the good in them” and then “be discarded of in a few days.”
LaPaglia stated that she wanted to “heal privately” first before discussing the separation in full.
On Thursday, she said on the podcast, “Last week I didn’t want to talk about it because I was scared, so I was like, ‘Yeah, we can just talk about this stuff that’s public,’ and I still said, ‘F— your money,’ but you made the women before me believe that they had no choice but to take money from you, sign their experiences away, sign what they went through away.” You get to slip away and sing your little f—ing tunes on stage like you’re a good guy.”
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She went on, “I don’t want to buy an f—ing house in two years and think, ‘Oh, this is the money from the dude that literally f—ing destroyed me and broke me for a year?'” “F— that, f— you; I do not want your money.”
“This isn’t like a drama thing for me,” she added. “I’m not refusing to sign the NDA or accept the money because I want to get on here and expose who he is, his secrets, and all that s—.” I did not accept the money because I am not willing to sign away my experiences and what I have gone through to protect someone who has injured me, and I am far stronger than a weak man. “F— you; f— your money.”
At the start of the podcast, they aired a video that LaPaglia made of herself a week ago, claiming that following the split, she was approached by his team and “offered a lot of money, a big lump sum of money, and a few options.” Essentially, I would have received the money over a three-year period in exchange for signing over all of my experiences and all I own to this guy. They would have monitored everything I did, and at the end of three years, I’d have received a large quantity of money.”
She said she considered taking the money “for a second,” but then decided she’s OK on her own and doesn’t need “blood money.”
LaPaglia made it plain that she never accepted money, adding, “That’s beneath me.”
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However, she claims she blames herself in a variety of ways for the breakdown of their relationship. “Half the reason this happened is that I allowed it… I kept turning up when I shouldn’t have, and I continued loving and giving when I shouldn’t have, and it came down to, like, that’s a me problem, which I believe many people have. If you are not receiving the love that you are providing, you must move away.
She referred to it as a “blessing,” as she was unsure how long she would have stayed with him otherwise.
She claimed that after sacrificing her time to go on tour with the “Something in the Orange” singer, he dropped her off in New York so she could go on her own tour for a few days, but their encounter felt “abrupt” and “weird.”
She recalled him telling her that after the “hardest year of his life,” he felt compelled to “sit still” and spend some time at home rather than accompany her, which made sense to her.
However, she claims she blames herself in a variety of ways for the breakdown of their relationship. “Half the reason this happened is that I allowed it… I kept turning up when I shouldn’t have, and I continued loving and giving when I shouldn’t have, and it came down to, like, that’s a me problem, which I believe many people have. If you are not receiving the love that you are providing, you must move away.
She referred to it as a “blessing,” as she was unsure how long she would have stayed with him otherwise.
She claimed that after sacrificing her time to go on tour with the “Something in the Orange” singer, he dropped her off in New York so she could go on her own tour for a few days, but their encounter felt “abrupt” and “weird.”
She recalled him telling her that after the “hardest year of his life,” he felt compelled to “sit still” and spend some time at home rather than accompany her, which made sense to her.
After she got home, she began to question herself, and he kept creeping into her mind in a negative way.
“I don’t think that’s how any relationship should ever be,” she told me. “Like, of course, you think about your significant other, but you shouldn’t think about like, ‘Is this going to upset them or is this gonna cause a fight?’ when it’s things that shouldn’t upset people.”
After that, she claimed he asked her to take him back, which she did, but he never apologized.
“And then we went to Boston for my live show, and a lot of horrible s— happened that night, and I don’t want to get into any details,” she added, adding that they had talked about working things out, but then he gave her the “cold shoulder,” and said he was going back to Oklahoma.
“It seemed like it was always hot and cold. “I never knew which version I’d get,” she explained.
She claimed that the last time she saw him, he refused to hug her and accused her of being “dramatic” when she expressed that it seemed like the last time they would be together.
“I never had a breakup chat or a phone call regarding what was going on. “I just had argumentative words,” she stated, noting that all she wanted was a “kinder goodbye.”
They finally discussed it via text, and she claims he informed her that going public with the breakup would be on her terms, but hours later she received messages from friends indicating that he had opened an account on the dating app Raya.
“I don’t think you need Raya, you need therapy,” she remarked in the video.
LaPaglia took a week off social media and requested Bryan to heal, but then she was bombarded by his social media post announcing their breakup, which she said he put because he was “caught” on Raya.
“Everyone in my life found out about the breakup from his Instagram,” she told me.
While she never had a proper goodbye, she stated that “his team reached out to me about settlements, and I got him reaching out to me only when Dave [Portnoy] talked about him online.”
“I just can’t wait to move forward and heal from this,” she stated. She added, “I don’t want your money, bro.”
During the podcast, Portnoy stated that the offer totaled $12 million in “life-changing money.”
All three co-hosts admitted to debating whether she should accept the money, and Portnoy stated that they eventually agreed, “F— the money, we’re going to war” against Bryan on the show, which featured a diss track they recorded about him.
She claimed that his team offered her a mansion or a New York apartment in addition to the $12 million, which increased gradually.
“I went through literal narcissistic emotional abuse for a year, and he made me believe everything was my fault,” she told me. “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.”
She claimed that when they first began dating, he informed her that “women are always trying to ruin my life online” and that people only wanted money from him. “He manipulated the f— out of me,” she alleged, claiming that he had been lovely to her in the first few months of their relationship before abruptly flipping the switch. “I don’t know why I stayed.”
She said Bryan controlled what she wore and posted on social media.
“This isn’t a breakup; instead, I suffered through a horrible year of emotional assault. This isn’t me saying I dated a guy who cheated on me with a girl at the bar; this is something far deeper,” she went on.
LaPaglia stated that she believed that providing her the money was his “final shot” at still controlling her and making her feel like he was a wonderful guy by leaving her something.
She also mentioned multiple times that his wrath allegedly spiraled out of hand, including during a birthday celebration where she said he yelled at her friends for no reason. Her aunt tried to calm him down, but LaPaglia claims he destroyed some glass.
She also claimed he shattered her phone, telling her co-hosts, “Look at my phone, it’s smashed from him, he’s always smashed my phone.”
Bryan has not replied to LaPaglia’s charges, but he has shared Instagram photos advertising his new song, “High Road,” with lyrics such as “Everyone is tellin’ me that I need help or therapy / But all I need is to be left alone.” In the tweet, he added that he just visited his mother’s headstone and “told her I quit touring because I got accepted to get my masters in Paris next year.”
This morning, he announced that he has 17 performances left on his “Quittin’ Time” tour, tweeting, “Never been more excited to finish a run up. It’s been a long one, and I’m grateful to everyone who attended a show this year.”
He also shared a link to a post from novelist Jack Kerouac’s estate, which featured a photo of the late writer and the quote: “I didn’t know what to say. I felt like crying, Goddammit, everyone in the world needs an explanation for your actions and your entire existence.”
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