Now that Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia and Zach Bryan have broken up, Dave Portnoy is done holding back.
During the Barstool Sports founder’s recent appearance on “The Unnamed Show,” he recalled two negative experiences with Bryan, 28, that left a bad taste in his mouth. The first apparently took place in Las Vegas this past February.
Per Portnoy, 47, he and fellow “BFFs” podcast host Josh Richards were going to meet LaPaglia, 25, at Bryan’s concert. However, LaPaglia called them with some bad news. (LaPaglia, Portnoy and Richards all host the “BFFs” podcast.)
“She’s like, ‘Zach has banned you from going to the concert,’” Portnoy recalled during the Thursday, October 24 episode. “Apparently, Zach went back — how many months was it — it had to be, maybe, six months. We at one time on ‘BFFs’ had a discussion where Bri just got a new boyfriend.”
During an August 2023 episode of “BFFs,” Portnoy called LaPaglia a “revolving door” of relationships when discussing her dating history. (She and Bryan started dating in July 2023, after they both experienced breakups.)
On Thursday, Portnoy explained that Bryan saw that clip which is what led to the ban.
“Bri was like, ‘It’s the first biggest fight we’ve been in,’” he recalled, noting that “this is what we do” on the “BFFs” podcast. “We joke and what are you mad about?”
The second “sensitive” situation between LaPaglia and Bryan came after she did a red carpet interview. (Portnoy noted that he got the “green light” to publicly share these stories.)
“Bri goes to, like, the Golden Globes and Zach’s not there. I think Bri, I’m paraphrasing, was interviewed on the red carpet,” Portnoy explained, recalling that LaPaglia named some “famous awesome looking celebrity” that she was excited to meet at the event.
“She was like, ‘He’s good looking,’ or like, ‘Yeah, he looks nice.’ [Zach] unfollowed Bri on social, blocked ‘BFFs.’” Portnoy said, calling Bryan an “insecure baby.”
“He just seemed like a really immature, not confident baby,” Portnoy continued. (Us Weekly has reached out to Bryan’s team for comment.)
Portnoy spent time with Bryan in July when attending the Boston date (and singing “Revival” on stage) of The Quittin’ Time Tour. The Barstool founder said Bryan was “nice,” but the vibes were “off.”
Portnoy’s quotes defending his employee LaPaglia came after news that she and Bryan split earlier this week. Bryan confirmed their breakup, after over a year together, with a Instagram Stories post. LaPaglia has since claimed that she was “blindsided” by the announcement and took a break from the internet.
“How can you, like, give every ounce of yourself to someone and then, like, be discarded of in a few days,” she said in a YouTube video uploaded on Tuesday, October 22. “It’s really, really heartbreaking and I don’t want to talk about details right now.”
Us Weekly reached out to Bryan and LaPaglia at the time of the split. A source subsequently told Us that she’s “devastated” after seeing his apparent Raya profile.
“They had just moved in together in the Spring, and she changed her whole life to accommodate his,” the source said. “He has denied all the allegations but still agreed they should split.”
