A week after Brianna LaPaglia revealed that she suffered alleged emotional abuse by ex-boyfriend and country music singer Zach Bryan, the influencer shared why she believes Bryan has stayed silent about the allegations.
“I think the response itself, the silence, is deafening,” she said. “I think his response proves his character again.”
LaPaglia — best known by her online name “Brianna Chickenfry” — continued to say that she “took the high road” by purposefully withholding details and evidence, regarding Bryan’s abuse as a way to “throw him a bone” so he could seek help for his behavior.
“I obviously think he’s not responding because if he is to respond, he has to deny it and if he denies it then I’m full story, then I post all the videos and the recordings,” she said on the Nov. 13 episode of Barstool Sports’ BFFs podcast with co-hosts Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards.
The “Something in the Orange” singer first announced his split with LaPaglia in October, on his Instagram story, causing LaPaglia to feel “blindsided.” She first opened up about what happened in their relationship on the podcast’s Nov. 7 episode.
“The last year of my life has been the hardest year of my life, dealing with the abuse from this dude,” she said. “I’m still scared of him, my brain’s rewired. I’m scared to make him mad.”
LaPaglia continued to say how Bryan “love bombed her,” tried to control what clothes she wore, yelled at her friends and “always smashed” her phone.
“He manipulated the fuck out of me,” she said. “I don’t expect people to understand emotional abuse if you haven’t been through it, and I hope you never have to go through it, but if you’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about. It was just this constant cycle of, ‘Build you up, beat you down, apologize,’ over and over and over.”
LaPaglia also alleged that Bryan and his team offered her $12 million to sign an NDA and not talk about their relationship or the experiences she endured.
However, LaPaglia decided not to sign it and described her reasons why, “This is isn’t, like, a drama thing for me, this isn’t me not signing the NDA and not taking the money because I want to get on here and expose who he is and his secrets and all that shit,” she explains. “I didn’t take the money because I’m not signing away my experiences and what I went through to protect someone that hurt me. I’m a lot stronger than a weak man.”
Bryan remains active on social media and released songs “High Road,” and “This World’s A Giant” after making their breakup public.
Reps for Bryan did not immediately respond to request for comment.