A few weeks after their split, podcaster Brianna Chickenfry (real name Brianna LaPaglia) has accused her ex Zach Bryan of emotional abuse during their year-long relationship.
“He manipulated the f–k out of me,” LaPaglia said on her podcast. “I don’t expect people to understand emotional abuse if you haven’t been through it, and I hope you never have to go through, but if you’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about. It was just this constant cycle of, ‘Built you up, beat you down, apologize,’ over and over and over.”
Bryan confirmed the breakup in October with an Instagram Story, saying, “I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to go our different ways. I am not perfect and never will be.” In response, LaPaglia posted an IG Story of her own, telling fans that she was “blindsided” by the singer’s post, and promising to fill everyone in when she was “ready to talk.”
Now, on her BFFs podcast, LaPaglia has described some of Bryan’s behavior, which she describes as “emotionally abusive,” while they were together. In the November 7 episode of the pod, LaPaglia said that Bryan first began trying to control her social media presence and wardrobe in January 2024, when he criticized her Golden Globes dress.
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“So I went to the Golden Globes, and I posted like a carousel of pictures, and he didn’t like my dress,” she said, per People. “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.”
LaPaglia also described an incident where she says Bryan became enraged after hearing her sing a Morgan Wallen song. (Zach Bryan and Morgan Wallen are both country music artists.)
“I walk up the stairs in the New York apartment, and I’m singing—like, I’m about to make breakfast or something—‘Last night we let the liquor talk,’” she said, referencing a lyric from the Wallen song, “Last Night.”
She continued, “He freaked the fuck out. Like, freaked the fuck out. He could not believe.” According to LaPaglia, Bryan yelled at her, “You’re singing another man’s song under my roof, in this house that I own.”
According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline website, some red flags of emotional abuse include a partner who is critical of your appearance, who tries to control your time and actions, and who becomes jealous and possessive.
“The last year of my life has been the hardest year of my life,” she told her podcast cohosts Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards. “Dealing with the abuse from this dude—I’m still scared right now.”
She continued, per E! News, “He made me believe everything was my fault. 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.”
Bryan has not responded directly to these allegations, but on Thursday, November 7, he shared on Instagram that he quit touring because he “got accepted to get [his] masters in Paris next year.” He also released a new single, called “High Road.”
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