Social Media star Brianna Lapaglia is a well known social media influencer who works for sports and pop-culture blog “Barstool Sports,” where she co-hosts podcasts and creates merchandise. She started going by “Chickenfry” after she made a funny joke that went viral about how her leg looked like a Burger King chicken fry. Zach Bryan is an extremely popular country artist, his discography including platinum hits “Something In The Orange” and “Oklahoma Smokeshow.” The pair’s breakup caused lots of drama that not only affected them, but the people around them as well.

The pair started dating in July of 2023, when they were both fresh out of relationships—the first of many controversies the pair would encounter throughout their time together. The two had met earlier that year in May at the Academy of Country Music Awards. Leading up to the event, Lapaglia had revealed that she was a huge fan of Bryan.

 In July 2023, when the two of them had broken up with their previous partners—Bryan and his ex in May and Lapaglia and her ex just a few weeks before—rumors started swirling that Bryan and Lapaglia were together. Based on their Instagram posts, the pair supposedly started dating July 14, 2023 and when Lapaglia addressed the relationship on the podcast she co-hosts, “BFFS.” The couple posted together, Lapaglia joined Bryan on tour, and Bryan even bought her a golden labrador named “Boston” all in the first few months of their relationship.

In April  2024, Bryan bought Lapaglia a multimillion dollar house in her hometown in Massachusetts. Many fans were quick to comment that it was a huge gesture to buy someone a house when they had only been dating for less than a year. Lapaglia celebrated her birthday in June, and Bryan rented a house for her family and friends to go to, to celebrate her birthday. In July 2024 the duo celebrated their one year anniversary, each taking to social media to post praise one and other, Lapaglia saying how Bryan has “made [her] appreciate all the things that were always right in front of [her]” and Bryan said how Lapagalia was “one of the only people that makes [him] laugh anymore”.

In early Oct. 2024, Lapaglia addressed break up rumors with Bryan, saying they were fine and “he was going through a lot of personal stuff and [she] went home and just separated….we’re together now and everythings ok”. Then on Oct. 21, Bryan was seen on Raya, a high profile celebrity dating app, and people across social media went crazy. On Oct. 22 Bryan took  to Instagram to reveal the two have broken up, and Lapaglia posted on YouTube a video explaining she was “blindsided” because they had just broken up the previous day and she had no idea he was going to announce it so quickly, so she needed some time to process. 

On Nov. 6, Lapaglia’s “BFFS” co-hosts Josh Richards and Dave Portnoy released a diss track titled “Smallest Man” in which they made many disses towards Bryan. It initially was removed because Warner Music issued a copyright infringement strike because Portnoy and Richards infringed on some of Bryan’s lyrics at the end, writing “How lucky is Bri to be free of ZB,” which is a play on Bryan’s song “28,” that includes the lyrics “how lucky are we.” Portnoy later got it put back on streaming platforms, but was taken down again because Richards had previously been signed to Warner Music Group. Richards explained to Portnoy why that was an issue by saying, “Well, I just remembered that I kind of signed my life away to Warner Music Group last year. So that might be why they’re upset that we are going after their biggest star on their label.”

The next day, Lapaglia took to the “BFFS” podcast and explained the breakup. She stated how she was offered $12 million dollars and an NDA to keep quiet, but she declined, saying it was more important for her to share her story. She claimed Bryan was a narcissist, and she suffered emotional abuse from him. She went on to explain the emotional abuse she went through and told many stories about the alleged abuse. Lapaglia recalled when she went to the Golden Globes in January  2024, and Bryan freaked out about her outfit. She said “He ruined my night. Everything good, anything good I did for me, he made sure to ruin it for me.” She also talked about how during her birthday weekend, Bryan caused a huge scene and lashed out on one of Lapaglia’s friends, believed to be her old podcast co-host Grace O’Malley. Lapaglia stated she is “still scared of him,” but did not elaborate, causing fans to question why exactly she is scared. Many believe he did more than mentally abuse her. On the next episode of “BFFS” Lapaglia also confirmed Bryan did cheat on her throughout their relationship. Richards, Portnoy, and Lapaglia all laid into Bryan for not posting or making any statements since the break up. 

Bryan has still said nothing since the breakup but has taken to his Instagram stories, reposting many photos and songs with cryptic messaging. Late at night on Nov. 7 he posted a photo of author Jack Kerouac from his estate’s Instagram with the caption “I didn’t know what to say. I felt like crying, [Expletive] everybody in the world wants an explanation for your acts and for your being.” Even though this quote from one of Kerouac’s novels, the timing of the post, a few hours after Lapaglia accused him of being emotionally abusive, led fans to believe it was directed towards Lapaglia. Bryan also dropped a song the day after Richard’s and Portnoy’s diss track dropped, called “This World’s a Giant.” The song was not explicitly about the breakup, but lyrics such as “I’ll say sorry to God for all the trouble I caused,” led fans to think he was talking about his relationship with Lapaglia. 

Since then, Lapaglia has revealed she’s lost many friendships, including her one with O’Malley, because of her relationship with Bryan. That situation has also caused Lapaglia to face a lot of backlash. Lapaglia and O’Malley’s fans had noticed the two drifting apart in the beginning of last year and into the summer, and they seemed to not be super involved in eachothers lives besides the podcast. The two addressed this on a podcast episode on May 30, 2024 and said how they had a good talk and were focusing on fixing their friendship. However, by Oct. 2024, Lapaglia and O’Malleys podcast had abruptly stopped after a few previous episodes featured tension between the two. Lapaglia had come under fire for blaming Grace for getting involved in “bad experience” with older men on a vacation to Ocean City when the two were teenagers. Many viewers were quick to comment about how uncomfortable Lapaglia had made O’Malley and how it was not her place to keep inserting herself. Both have still stayed pretty quiet about their friendship falling out. Anytime either of them have talked, besides Lapaglia during her tell-all, the focus of the conversation has been on their old podcast. O’Malley also announced in Dec. 2024 that she would be leaving Barstool, and she signed with a different podcast network Unwell. The move finalized the fact that the pair will not be returning to the podcast together. Lapaglia has shared a few times she is working on bringing it back, but it would just feature O’Malley. 

Overall, the pair’s messy breakup has seemed to fizzle out, and they are now both moving and pursuing new people and activities. Both Lapaglia and Bryan have been spotted with new potential partners. Bryan has posted an unidentified girl a few times, and Lapaglia has met a guy on a trip she took, named Bard Van Calcar. She recently took him on a brand trip with her, for the makeup brand “Tarte.” She has also been facing a lot of controversy for that, as Van Calcar is not even her boyfriend, and she’s only known him for about 2 months. Lapagalia did make it clear he is nothing more than a friend, and she is not going to be involved in a committed relationship for a while. Bryan has also announced that he will be releasing a new album this year, and Lapaglia just modeled for “Sports Illustrated.”