Zach Bryan and Brianna Chickenfry’s Breakup Drama, Explained
The breakup between The Great American Bar Scene singer Zach Bryan and BFFs podcaster Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia is taking the internet by storm, and if that word scramble doesn’t mean anything to you, buckle up. The yearlong relationship between the Grammy Award-winning country artist and Barstool podcast host might be over — but the people’s interest in their surprising relationship sure isn’t.
Much of the drama surrounding Bryan and LaPaglia’s breakup has come from intense fan scrutiny that began well before the two had even confirmed their relationship in the first place. Fans of the couple were first clued into the breakup when LaPaglia posted a mysterious handwritten note to her Instagram grid, saying, “Life goes on even if you don’t want it to.” Bryan then officially announced the breakup on his Instagram story, asking for fans to respect their privacy. “Brianna and me have broken up with each other and I respect and love her with every ounce of my heart,” he wrote. “She has loved me unconditionally for a very long time and for that I’ll always thank her. 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. I am not perfect and I never will be. 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.” While the statement implied a mutual split, LaPaglia said she was surprised by the public announcement and would be taking a break from social media. “I had no idea that post was going up,” she said in a short video posted on YouTube, eventually crying. “I’m completely blindsided by that.”
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The Backstory
So why are people so interested in the first place? Bryan, 28, is best known as one of the rising stars of country music. After going viral in 2019 with a grainy video singing his original song “Heading South,” the singer quickly became a staple in the genre, eventually taking home the Best Country Duo/Group Performance Grammy in 2024 for his duet “I Remember Everything” with Kacey Musgraves. His self-titled fourth album reached Number One on the Billboard 200, and this month, he was on the cover of Rolling Stone’s annual Musicians on Musicians issue alongside songwriting legend Bruce Springsteen. LaPaglia, for her part, started her internet career with Vine (the now-defunct video app), where she first went viral for comparing her leg to a Burger King Chicken Fry. After interning at Barstool, she became a host of the BFFs podcast alongside Josh Richards and Barstool founder Dave Portnoy. LaPaglia is best known for her comedic takes on dating and working post-college, and hosts her own podcast called PlanBri Uncut.
LaPaglia and Byran shocked fans when they were first linked at the 2023 American Music Awards that May, where the two took a photo together. After announcing his breakup with his former partner, a woman named Deb Peifer, Bryan invited LaPaglia onstage during his show that June at New York City’s Forest Hills Stadium. LaPaglia publicly confirmed their relationship on her podcast after a month of escalating rumors. “It’s fun, it’s casual … just wanted to address it because the whole internet is freaking the fuck out and people are doing shit,” she said on a July episode of PlanBri. “We’re just hanging out, having fun, and that’s where I’ve been, that’s what I’ve been doing, that’s what I’m gonna be doing for a little bit. We’ll see where it goes, and I’m happy.”
Public Interest
LaPaglia’s relationship with Bryan has been a topic of interest online since they were first involved. In an August 2023 interview with People, LaPaglia confessed that Bryan fans were harassing her. “Good TikTok drama that I’ve been loving lately is following the whole internet hate me during my new relationship,” she said on the red carpet for the Streamy Awards that same month. “It’s fun. I’m kind of eating it up. It was kind of crazy at first, but I realized you can’t buy into love or hate on the internet. You just kinda gotta be yourself and see where it takes ya.” So early this month, when rumors spread on TikTok that Bryan was active on the celebrity dating app Raya, people began claiming that the singer was cheating on LaPaglia. Even since the breakup was confirmed, TikTok users have continued to debate the relationship, this time trying to figure out which party is to blame.
The End
Like most internet-heavy relationships, fans and foes alike have already taken sides in the LaPaglia-Bryan split. Some fans have accused Bryan of cheating, while others have declared LaPaglia deserving of the heartbreak. LaPaglia’s boss, Portnoy, weighed in — dedicating Taylor Swift’s song “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” to LaPaglia on X (formerly Twitter). And on a recent episode of The Unnamed Show podcast, Portnoy claimed Bryan was back on Raya before “the body was even cold” and that he never felt good about the singer’s relationship with LaPaglia. “Every time I met him, I was not comfortable with him,” Portnoy said. “He just seemed like an insecure, immature, not-confident baby.” Some have pushed back, however. Bryan’s ex Peifer asked commenters on TikTok to stop assuming she was glad Bryan and LaPaglia had broken up. “I just wanna be clear on the fact that I don’t find any gratification in other people hurting. Specifically other women hurting,” she said on TikTok.
The Clapbacks
Bryan has remained silent since his Instagram story update, instead promoting new music on his Instagram. But for those still invested, LaPaglia has continued to update her audience and address the breakup in her signature comic nature.
“I’m literally so fine besties,” she said in a recent Instagram Story update. “F— men and k!ll em all lmao.”
While BFFs took a week long break for LaPaglia’s mental health, Richards and Portnoy and dropped a Bryan-inspired diss track called “Smallest Man,” mocking the country singer’s looks, tattoos, and behavior. “I said trust me, caught your pants on fire/Tinder Bumble Raya, knew you was a liar/You’re a douchebag, you just made a new rival/Pretty soon you gonna need a revival,” the two sang in cop costumes. The song and accompanying music video was released on YouTube, Instagram, and Spotify, but removed over Warner Music Group copyright. In a TikTok post, Portnoy said that they assumed the copyright was over the sample of Bryan’s song 28, used in the video. But according to Portnoy, the strike was because Richards has an ongoing contract with WMG.
An Explosive Episode
BFFs returned Thursday night with a detailed episode on LaPaglia and Bryan’s relationship. LaPaglia accused the country singer of emotional abuse and alleged that he offered her $12 million to sign a non disclosure agreement. She described incidents where she was verbally berated, claimed Bryan was often drunk, belligerent, and destructive.
“The last year of my life has been the hardest year of my life dealing with the abuse from this dude,” LaPaglia said during the episode. “My brain’s rewired and I’m scared to make him mad, and last week, I didn’t want to talk about it because I was scared.”
“You made the women before me believe that they had no other choice but to take money from you,” LaPaglia added. “[They] signed their experiences and what they went through away [so] you get to go skip off and sing you little fucking songs on stage like you’re a good dude.”
A representative for Bryan did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
LaPaglia has stated that she will continue to speak out, in the hopes that other women who experience emotional abuse will hear her story.
“It’s for anyone that don’t have a support system that I luckily had going through this,” the podcaster said. “This isn’t like a drama thing for me, this isn’t me not signing the NDA or not taking the money because I wanna get on here and expose who he is and all that shit. I’m not signing away my experiences and what I went through to protect someone that hurt me and I’m a lot stronger than a weak man, fuck you and fuck your money.”
A Second Diss Track
On Sunday, Nov. 10, Portnoy released a second diss track aimed at Bryan, titled “Country Diddy,” likening the country star allegedly offering LaPaglia $12 million to sign a non-disclosure agreement to NDAs Sean “Diddy” Combs reportedly handed out to people who entered his orbit. “Offered Bri $13 mil, just to shut her trap / Then she turned around and said shove it up you ass,'” Portnoy raps.
Later in the 3:30-minute-long song, Portnoy adds, “I see the playbook on how you use people / Crying mental health after you abuse people.”
The song’s cover features an image of a Lego dressed as a cowboy, holding a guitar and an NDA. By Monday morning, the track racked up nearly 500,000 views on YouTube, as Portnoy encouraged his followers to make the song go No. 1.
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