On a new edition of her BFF’s Podcast, the social media sensation (real name Brianna LaPaglia) said that, while she and Bryan first met briefly in May, they didn’t start dating until he slid into her DMs — and they’ve since had an 18-hour road trip together. Brianna Chickenfry, a podcast presenter, is speaking out about her new relationship with country artist Zach Bryan.
“He’s the nicest, most sincere person I’ve ever met.” “He’s so normal,” she told Dave Portnoy, Josh Richards, and Grace O’Malley, her cohosts. “We took an f—in’ 18-hour car ride together and… didn’t put any music on and talked the entire time.” That’s when I realized, “Oh, this guy is actually awesome.” We became acquainted.”
She went on to say, “We’ve been spending a lot of time together.”
LaPaglia, 24, first met the “Something in the Orange” singer in May at the 2023 ACM Awards, where they posed for a photo.
At the time, Bryan was dating his ex-girlfriend Deb Peifer, while LaPaglia was dating her boyfriend Joey. She informed her podcast cohosts that she and the musician “didn’t say anything to each other” except when she requested for a photo with him.
Then, on June 23, LaPaglia joined Bryan onstage with Richards and others for his show at Forest Hills Stadium in New York City — and, while they didn’t interact during the show, they started chatting a few days afterwards.
“I was still at the concert with my boyfriend.” Then, a few days later, Joey and I split up. And [Bryan] had already broken up with his girlfriend before f—in’ slipping into my DMs,” she explained. “After we went onstage, I made a podcast called ‘Eat the Rich Besides Zach Bryan,’ and he posted it, and then he DM‘d me and said, ‘That was so sweet, thank you guys for coming.'” Then we just started talking.”
LaPaglia explained that she wanted to clarify the timing for listeners because their relationship “didn’t all just happen at once,” and she had planned to keep it a secret as long as possible.
“I thought we were just going to get away with it for a little bit, ’cause I knew what the reaction was going to be, because I just got out of a relationship, he just got out of a relationship,” she claimed, adding that she’s been receiving “a lot of hate.”
LaPaglia verified during the show that she was ringing in from Oklahoma, Bryan’s home state, and the singer even stepped in momentarily to say hello. The Grammy-nominated singer, who has been hinting at a new record, announced his divorce from Peifer in May.
“Things are mutual between us, we’re leaving with plenty [of] memories and good times,” he said at the time on Twitter. “I beg everyone to respect her and my privacy during this difficult time.”