Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia is claiming that ex-boyfriend Zach Bryan was emotionally abusive toward her during their relationship.
“It’s not just for me, it’s for anyone else who’s been emotionally abused, it’s for anyone right now that’s been emotionally abused,” LaPaglia, 25, said in a Thursday, November 7, Instagram teaser clip for her upcoming “BFFs” podcast with Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards. “It’s for people that don’t have a support system like I was lucky enough to have [while] going through this.”
In the episode, which drops in its entirety on Thursday evening, LaPaglia will open up to her Barstool Sports cohosts about her recent breakup from Bryan, 28. In the teaser, LaPaglia alleged that the past year has been very difficult as her romance with the country singer wasn’t as happy as others believed.
“The last year of my life has been the hardest year of my life, dealing with the abuse from this dude,” she claimed. “I’m still scared of him, my brain’s rewired. I’m scared to make him mad. Last week I didn’t want to talk about it because I was scared.”
LaPaglia admitted that she was afraid to fully speak her mind about her relationship with Bryan except for what was already out there as “public” knowledge. The online personality claimed that Bryan offered her money if she signed an NDA, which she refused.
“I still said f— your money. You made the women before me believe they had no other choice,” she alleged. “And to take money from you, sign their experiences away, sign what they went through away, You get to go skip off and sing your little f—ing songs on stage like you’re a good dude.”
While LaPaglia didn’t offer more details about the NDA, she confessed that she might have regrets in the end if she went through with it.
“I don’t want in two years to buy a f—ing house and think ‘O this is the money from the dude that literally f-–ing destroyed me and broke me for a year,” she stated. “F— that, f— you, I don’t want your money.”
LaPaglia added that her role as a podcaster did not influence her decision to sign a contract.
“This isn’t, like, a drama thing for me, this isn’t me not signing the NDA and not taking the money because I want to get on here and expose who he is and his secrets and all that s—,” she claimed. “I didn’t take the money because 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.
Us Weekly has reached out to Bryan’s team for comment.
Last week, LaPaglia took a break from the BFFs podcast. She shared via her social media at the time that she was stepping away as she continued to process her and Bryan’s public breakup.
“We tried to record this week but I am having a very hard time figuring out how I want to handle this publicly due to all the backlash,” LaPaglia shared in a message posted via the podcast’s TikTok account. “I am going to put my mental health first this week. Josh and Dave want to make sure I do what’s best for me.”
Earlier this week, LaPaglia revealed that she, Portnoy and Richards were blocked by Bryan on social media. Portnoy and Richards have been publicly supportive of LaPaglia following the split.
In October, Bryan announced that he and LaPaglia called it quits after one year of dating.
“Addressing something: Brianna and me have broken up with eachother [SIC] and I respect and love her with every ounce of my heart,” the musician wrote via an Instagram Story statement. “She has loved me unconditionally for a very long time and for that I’ll always thank her.”
LaPaglia, for her part, admitted that the breakup caught her by surprise so she decided to take some time to process what happened.
“Hey guys I’m feeling really blindsided right now. Gonna hop off social media for a while and attempt to heal privately, when I’m ready I’ll be back and ready to talk,” she penned via her Instagram Story.“I love you guys so much thank you for all of your kind words. Remember you are so loved and everything’s always gonna be OK.”