Zach Bryan and Brianna Chickenfree Breakup Timeline

Only a week has passed since then The Great American Bar Scene singer Zack Bryan announced a split from BFFs podcaster Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia, and if the word scramble means nothing to you, buckle up. A year-long relationship between the Grammy Award-winning country singer and Bar stool podcast host may be over, but the internet’s interest in their amazing relationship certainly isn’t.

Much of the drama surrounding Bryan and Lapalia’s breakup came from intense fan scrutiny that began long before the two even confirmed their relationship first of all Fans of the couple first learned of the split when LaPaglia posted a mysterious handwritten note on her Instagram feed saying, “Life goes on, even if you don’t want it to.” Bryan then officially announced the split on his Instagram story, asking fans to respect their privacy. “Brianna and I have separated from each other and I respect and love her with all my heart,” he wrote. “She loved me unconditionally for a very long time, and for that I will always be grateful to her. I personally had an incredibly difficult year and struggled with some pretty serious things. I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to go our separate ways. I’m not perfect and I never will be. With all that I am and all that I have let down, I am sorry. I try in everything. I let down the people who love me, and mostly myself.” While the announcement implied a mutual breakup, LaPaglia said she was surprised by the public announcement and was going to take a break from social media. “I had no idea this post would go up,” she said in a short video posted on YouTube, breaking down in tears at the end. “I’m completely blindsided by it.”

Prehistory

So why are people so interested in the first place? Brian, 28, is known as one of them rising stars of country music. After going viral in 2019 with a grainy video of him singing his original song “Heading South,” the singer quickly became a staple in the genre, eventually taking home a Grammy in 2024 for his duet “I Remember Everything ” with the song “I Remember Everything” with Kacey Musgraves. His self-titled fourth album reached number one on the Billboard Hot 200 chart, and in October 2024 he was on the cover of Rolling StoneThe annual Musicians About Musicians with songwriting legend Bruce Springsteen. LaPaglia, for her part, began her internet career with Vine (a 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 BFFs podcast is nearby Josh Richards and founder of Barstool Dave Portnoy. LaPaglia is best known for her comedic take on dating and work after college, and hosts her own podcast called PlanBri Uncut.

LaPaglia and Byron shocked fans when they were first linked at the 2023 American Music Awards in May, where they posed for a photo together. After announcing his split from his former partner, a woman named Deb Pifer, Brian invited LaPalia onstage during his show that June at Forest Hills Stadium in New York. LaPaglia publicly confirmed their relationship on her podcast after a month of escalating rumors. “It’s fun, it’s casual… just wanted to talk about it because the whole internet is going to hell and people are doing shit,” she said in the July episode Plan Bri. “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 going to be doing for a while. We’ll see where it goes and I’m happy.”

Public interest

LaPaglia’s relationship with Bryan has been a topic of interest on the Internet ever since they got involved. In August 2023, in an interview with PeopleLaPaglia admitted that Bryan’s fans harassed her. “Good TikTok A drama I’ve been loving lately follows the whole internet hating me in my new relationship,” she said. said on the red carpet for Streamy Awards of the same month. “It’s fun. I somehow eat it. It was crazy at first, but I realized you can’t buy love or hate online. You just have to be yourself and see where it takes you.” So in early October 2024, when rumors spread on TikTok that Bryan was heavily using the celebrity dating app Raya, people started claiming that the singer was cheating on LaPaglia. Even after the breakup was confirmed, TikTok users continued to discuss the relationship, this time trying to figure out who was to blame.

End

Like most Internet-related relationships, LaPaglia and Bryan’s breakup has already had both fans and foes on its side. Some fans accused Bryan of cheating, while others said LaPaglia deserved to be heartbroken. LaPaglia’s boss, Portnoy, dedicated Taylor Swift’s “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” to LaPaglia on X (formerly Twitter). And in a recent episode Nameless show Portnoy claimed that Bryan went back to Raya before “the body even got cold” and that he never felt good about the singer’s relationship with LaPaglia. “Every time I met him, I felt uncomfortable with him,” Portnoy said. “He just seemed like an insecure, immature, insecure kid.” However, some pushed back. Pifer Branagh’s ex asked TikTok commenters to stop assuming she’s glad Bryan and LaPaglia split. “I just want to make clear the fact that I don’t take pleasure in hurting other people. In particular, other women are hurting,” she said on TikTok. Brian has remained silent since updating his Instagram story, promoting new music on his Instagram instead. But for those still invested, LaPaglia continued to renew his audience and bridge the gap with his trademark comedic nature.

“I’m literally a really pretty BFF,” she said in a recent Instagram Story update. “Wh… men and we’ll kill them all lmao.”