Photo illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images

Weeks after their controversial breakup, Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia has accused country singer Zach Bryan of emotional abuse during their years-long relationship. On Thursday’s episode of the BFFs podcast, the Barstool podcaster told co-hosts Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards that she had endured the hardest year of her life “dealing with this guy’s abuse.” LaPaglia then claimed that Bryan had a habit of handing out non-disclosure agreements to the women he dates, claiming that he offered her $12 million and an apartment in New York in exchange for her silence about their relationship. “I’m still scared now because I’m scared of him,” LaPaglia said. “My brain has been rewired and I’m afraid of making him angry.”

Over the course of an hour-long episode, LaPaglia characterized the alleged abuse as a cycle of “building you up, beating you down, apologizing again and again.” The 25-year-old said Bryan would often shout at her before changing his tune and begging for forgiveness – something she cried herself to sleep about ‘every night’. As for the non-disclosure agreement Bryan says she offered her, LaPaglia said she refused to sign any paperwork or accept his money: “I’m not signing away my experiences and what I’ve been through to protect someone who has hurt me, and I am much stronger than a weak man. Fuck you, and fuck your money.”

“You get to skip and sing your little damn songs on stage like you’re a good guy. You are allowed to treat the people around you like shit,” she added. ‘Sorry, I’m not them. I don’t want your money. I don’t want to buy a damn house in two years and think: Oh, this is the money from the guy who literally broke me and ruined me for a year.”

LaPaglia also said the singer “tried to control” what she wore and posted online, referring to a gold corset dress she wore to the Golden Globes in January. “That was fucking crazy… He said he didn’t want to date someone who presents himself like that, and he unfollowed me,” she said. ‘He ruined my evening. Everything good, everything good that I did for me, he made sure to ruin it for me.

LaPaglia and Bryan started dating in July 2023. The couple had been together for just over a year when Bryan made an Instagram post Story in October, she announced they had split — a move LaPaglia said she was “blindsided” by. Per Our weekly, After LaPaglia’s podcast dropped, the singer reposted an image of Jack Kerouac to his Instagram Story. “I didn’t know what to say. I felt like crying. God damn it, everyone in the world wants an explanation for your actions and for your entire being,” the caption reads, quoting the writer’s 1957 novel. On the road. Shortly afterwards, Bryan posted a glamor photo of a horse.

During Thursday’s episode, LaPaglia reiterated that she wasn’t coming forward for fame or to put down Bryan, but “for anyone who has been emotionally abused and for people who are currently being emotionally abused.”

The Cut has reached out to Bryan for comment and will update this post if we hear back.