Zach Bryan’s Ex Brianna LaPaglia Claims ‘Emotional Abuse,’ Rejected $12 Million NDA Offer
Country star Zach Bryan is at the center of allegations from his former girlfriend, Barstool Sports podcast host and internet personality Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia.
In a Nov. 8 episode of the BFFs Podcast LaPaglia co-hosts with Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards, she made a series of bombshell claims, including accusing Bryan of “emotional abuse” during their relationship and claiming she was offered $12 million and a New York apartment to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) about their relationship, which she said she refused.
More from Billboard
“The last year of my life has been like the hardest year of my life dealing with the abuse from this dude,” LaPaglia said on the episode. “I’m still scared right now because I’m scared of him. My brain’s rewired, and I’m scared to make him mad.”
“There was always another excuse as to why he was treating me so poorly and why I’m crying myself to sleep every night, why he’s screaming at me,” she said. “And then you wake up, it’s the apology, it’s the ‘I’m going to be better, I need you in my life.'”
She alleged that Bryan made his previous girlfriends sign NDAs to prevent them from discussing their experiences publicly. “He made the women before me believe that they had no other choice than to take money from you, sign their experiences away, sign what they went through away,” she claimed.
According to LaPaglia, after their breakup, she was approached by Bryan’s team with a significant financial offer in exchange for her silence.
“I was offered a lot of money, like a big lump sum of money and a few options,” she explained. “Basically, I would have gotten the money over the course of three years. I would have had to sign all of my experiences, everything that I am, away to this person. They would have been monitoring everything that I do.”
She said firmly rejected the offer, stating, “I did not accept any money. I will not accept any money. I think that’s beneath me. 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.”
“It’s not just for me—it’s for anyone else who’s been emotionally abused, for people who are being emotionally abused right now, and for people who don’t have a support system like I was lucky enough to have over the last year,” she aid.
She also recounted specific incidents during their relationship, including one at the Golden Globes. LaPaglia claimed Bryan “ruined” her experience because he disapproved of her dress. “That was f—– crazy. That was the first time he had really tried to control what I wore and what I posted,” she recalled. “So I went to the Golden Globes and I posted like a carousel of pictures, and he didn’t like my dress.”
“He said he didn’t want to date someone that presents themselves that way. And he unfollowed me, he unfollowed everyone, and I… when I flew home — I flew home after the Golden Globes. He ruined my night,” continued LaPaglia.
“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.”
LaPaglia also described an alleged incident on her birthday, where Bryan reportedly berated her friends after she had gone to bed. “I look outside and I have my aunt trying to control Zach — there’s a recording of all of this that can never be out — basically Zach stood up at the fire and he just starts screaming at my friends.”
“He stood up at the fire and just starts screaming at my friends, ‘You’re not going to be anything, you’re a [expletive] loser.’ Just the most horrible [expletive],” she said. “It was just crazy, completely out of nowhere … When Zach gets in that zone, there’s no containing it.”
In another instance, LaPaglia claimed Bryan had smashed her phone, saying to her co-hosts, “Look at my phone, it’s smashed from him, he’s always smashed my phone,” adding that he will “whip it at a wall.”
LaPaglia shared that she felt “isolated” during the relationship, which was made public in July 2023. They dated for over a year before he confirmed their split in October.
“I don’t even recognize myself anymore. I lost 15 pounds I didn’t have to lose in the relationship. I didn’t sleep. I was completely isolated from my family, from my friends, from work. He just took me out of my life. It was awful, and I stayed because I was stuck and I loved the dude. I kind of blame myself—I’m like, why did I stay? There’s no answer. It’s crazy.”
Billboard has reached out to Zach Bryan’s representatives for comment but has not received a response as of publication.
It comes after co-hosts Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards released a diss track aimed at Zach Bryan. The track, which mocked Bryan and referenced the allegations, reportedly faced multiple takedown attempts.
“We knew it was a hit the second we laid it down,” Richards said on the podcast. Portnoy added, “We got crybaby Bryan and the spineless PR team running around deleting [expletive] off the internet, and guess what, it’s still getting millions of views.”
Portnoy claimed that Bryan’s team attempted to suppress the diss track through legal means. “They’re trying to squeeze Bri because of Josh and me,” he said.
The diss track was eventually removed from several platforms, allegedly due to takedown requests from Bryan’s team. “Their crisis management—why he cares so much—is, I guess, what we’ll get into now,” Portnoy commented.
LaPaglia expressed that sharing her story was important not just for herself but for others in similar situations: “That’s why I didn’t take the money. The message I want to put out there is that so many people go through this, feeling trapped or thinking they’ll never be able to leave.”
She added: “I hope people can understand what I went through this past year and see why I lost myself and wasn’t who I was before him. But I’m back now, and I’m so happy to just be myself again. No more dictatorship here.”
Just one day before the allegations emerged, Bryan shared his latest single, “This World’s a Giant,” with a candid Instagram post, where he revealed he had headed back to Oklahoma and spoke of his plans to pause touring to pursue a master’s degree in Paris.
“After not being home for a year and a half, I drove out to my mother’s gravestone in the dead of night… and I came to realize just like in the past, that she never would call me again,” he wrote, sharing a series of images of his late mother, Annette, and his bandmates.
Bryan continued, “I told her I quit touring because I got accepted to get my masters in Paris next year… I told her about all my best friends in New York and all the nights we howled with the moon… [and] about making it on The Rolling Stone.”
He expressed gratitude to fans, adding, “Thank you guys for listening to ‘This World’s a Giant’ last night, and thank you to all the people who love me; who have truly carried the weight with me… I’m home now and I’ll hold you through the pain.”
You can watch the full episode here.
Best of Billboard
Sign up for Billboard's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.