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By Daisy Innes
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In November of 2024, the highly publicised relationship between country music star Zach Bryan and influencer Brianna 'Chickenfry' LaPaglia came to a dramatic and very public end.
What had once appeared to be a picture-perfect romance quickly unraveled, as the breakup gave way to a storm of accusations, cryptic posts, and a viral online spectacle involving claims of emotional abuse, NDAs, and public spats on social media.
The couple had reportedly broken up in October 2024, when LaPaglia posted a handwritten note to Instagram reading, “life goes on even if you don’t want it to.” Bryan later confirmed the breakup, asking for privacy and stating that he’d had “an incredibly hard year personally and struggled through some pretty severe things.” In his message, he took some personal responsibility, writing: “I failed people that love me and mostly myself.”
At first, the breakup seemed mutual. But tensions escalated when LaPaglia later said she felt “completely blindsided” by Bryan’s public statement, revealing her emotional reaction in a video uploaded to her YouTube channel. From that point on, the situation began to unfold more publicly — and more contentiously.
Following the breakup, LaPaglia’s podcast BFFs (produced by Barstool Sports) took a week-long break, but the surrounding drama continued. Co-hosts Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards responded in their own way, releasing a diss track titled “Smallest Man,” which included jabs at Bryan’s tattoos, character, and music, including clever references to the singer’s own lyrics.
When BFFs returned, the controversy intensified. On November 8, 2024, LaPaglia accused Bryan of emotional abuse during their relationship and claimed that his team had offered her a $12 million non-disclosure agreement in exchange for her silence. According to LaPaglia, she declined the offer and spoke out publicly instead: “I’m not signing away my experiences and what I went through to protect someone that hurt me. I’m a lot stronger than a weak man, f** you and f*** your money.”*
She further alleged that Bryan had pressured previous partners into signing NDAs as well, saying: “You made the women before me believe they had no other choice but to take money from you, they signed their experiences away.”
These claims have not been independently verified, and Bryan has not publicly responded to the NDA allegation or the accusations of emotional abuse.
LaPaglia has remained one of Bryan’s most vocal exes, while others — including his ex-wife Rose Madden and former girlfriend Deb Peifer — have kept a lower profile. Bryan and Madden married in 2020 but quietly separated a year later. His breakup with Peifer was described publicly as “mutual” and “full of memories and good times.”
Fast forward nearly eight months, and the drama resurfaced online. While Bryan had mostly kept quiet in the aftermath — focusing on touring and releasing new music — a comment on TikTok reignited the fire.
On July 8, 2025, a user posted a TikTok using a snippet of Bryan’s new song 'River Washed Hair', featuring the lyric: “Start over, find closure, and just say I’m sorry to the sweet girl who tore off that dress”. The caption joked, “Did someone check on Bri lol?” prompting Bryan to reply in a since-deleted comment: “lmfao I said ‘sweet,’ this is not about whatever she has going on hahahaha.”
That brief comment was enough to trigger another round of public sparring. LaPaglia quickly responded: “Lmao of course he doesn’t think I’m sweet. I turned down $12 million to share my abuse while Rose and Deb signed NDAs. Also FYI his songs aren’t about anyone, he writes them blackout at 6AM”.
LaPaglia has previously suggested that a key incident — which she refers to as the “fire pit recording” — exemplified some of the behavior she experienced during the relationship. On her podcast, she recalled an event where Bryan allegedly “threw jabs at [her] friends and called people idiots.” At the time, she said there was a recording of the encounter that she would “never release.” Now, she appears to have changed her mind.
In a follow-up comment, LaPaglia teased that she would release recordings and share more details in an upcoming BFFs episode: “Also his comment just made me feel very excited to share some videos and stories of him this week on BFFs. Can’t wait to release the fire pit recording.”
As of now, the contents of that recording remain unclear, and Bryan has not publicly addressed the claims or LaPaglia’s upcoming podcast segment.
Whether this public fallout continues or simmers down remains to be seen. With Bryan touring and writing new music, and LaPaglia maintaining a strong social media and podcast presence, the conversation around their relationship shows no signs of ending soon.
For more on Zach Bryan, see below: