Brianna LaPaglia has accused country music star Zach Bryan of “emotional abuse,” saying he offered her $12m to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) about their breakup.
The 25-year-old influencer – also known as Brianna Chickenfry – spoke about her past relationship with Bryan, 29, during a new episode of her BFFs Podcast, which she hosts with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy and influencer Josh Richards. Her comments came weeks after she and Bryan announced their split on Instagram, with LaPaglia saying she was “blindsided” by the breakup.
LaPaglia said she was urged to speak out about the breakup for the sake of other exes who went through similar experiences dating Bryan.
“The last year of my life has been the hardest year of my life dealing with the abuse from this dude,” she claimed on the podcast 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.”
She further alleged that she experienced “literal narcissistic emotional abuse” throughout her year-long relationship with the musician.
“He made me believe everything was my fault. He isolated me from my entire life,” LaPaglia continued. “He wouldn’t let me be who I wanted to be. He made me hate everything that I loved about myself. He broke me down and then made me feel like he was all I had left.”
LaPaglia looked on their relationship and claimed she ignored some red flags, including “immediate love bombing” from Bryan. She also said he “manipulated the f*** out” of her, as she thought he was “this great dude” during the first four months of their relationship.
“After four months of the love bombing, just being the loveliest, best dude ever, it all of a sudden switched,” she said. “There was always another excuse as to why he was treating me so poorly, why I’m crying myself to sleep every night, why he’s screaming at me, and then you wake up. It’s the apology, it’s the ‘I’m going to be better like I need you in my life.’”
Elsewhere in the episode, LaPaglia claimed that Bryan asked her to sign an NDA, as he had previously asked other girlfriends.
“You 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. “You get to go skip off and sing your little f***ing songs on stage like you’re a good dude. You get to treat people around you like s***. Sorry, I’m not them. I don’t want your money.”
She alleged: “His team would call me. They gave me all these options. They started low, then they went up to $10m, then they went up to $12m, then they wanted to give me a house. Then they wanted to give me a New York apartment.”
The Independent has contacted Bryan’s representatives for comment.
On October 22, Bryan revealed on his Instagram Story that he and LaPaglia had split after more than a year of dating. “Addressing something: Brianna and me have broken up with each other [sic] and I respect and love her with every ounce of my heart,” his statement began. “She has loved me unconditionally for a very long time and for that, I’ll always thank her.”
He continued: “I’ve 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 out different ways.”
LaPaglia then released a statement of her own on her Instagram Story, writing: “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 later posted a video on her YouTube channel, explaining that they ended the relationship one day before Bryan posted his Instagram statement.
“I just woke up to Zach posting on his Instagram that we broke up, and I had no idea that post was going up,” she said through tears. “He didn’t text me, he didn’t call me.”
