It’s only been a week since The Great American Bar Scene singer Zach Bryan announced his split from BFFs podcaster Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia, 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 internet’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.”
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. 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.”