Zach Bryan’s ex-girlfriend says she was offered $12M NDA after breakup

Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia is taking to the airwaves to say that former boyfriend Zach Bryan offered her a $12 million NDA after the breakup − and that she turned it down.

The country star announced Oct. 22 that he and LaPaglia had split. Now, two weeks after their breakup, LaPaglia, 25, is opening up about her relationship with Bryan, 29, for the first time on the “BFFs Podcast” she cohosts with Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards.

“The last year of my life has been the hardest year of my life, like, dealing with abuse from this dude,” she said. “Like, I’m still scared right now ’cause I’m scared of him.”

She did not go into detail about the exact nature of the alleged abuse.

LaPaglia added: “This episode of me not taking the money, like, it’s not just for me. It’s for anyone else that’s been emotionally abused. It’s for people right now that are being emotionally abused. It’s for people that don’t have a support system that I was luckily enough to have going through this.”

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USA TODAY has reached out to Bryan’s representatives for comment.

‘I failed people’:Zach Bryan announces breakup from girlfriend Brianna Chickenfry

Brianna LaPaglia: Zach Bryan’s team offered ‘big lump sum of money’

In a clip featured at the top of this week’s podcast episode, LaPaglia said after her breakup with Bryan she was “approached by his team and I was offered a lot of money, a big lump sum of money and a few options.”

“Basically, I would have gotten the money over the course of three years and I would have had to sign all of my experiences, everything that I am, away to this person,” she explained. “I don’t think you can pay people off that you hurt for them to protect you. That in itself, offering millions of dollars to this apparent beautiful relationship, to keep it a secret, speaks volumes … I did not accept any money, I will not accept any money.”

Later in the episode, LaPaglia and her cohosts revealed she allegedly turned down $12 million in exchange for signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). “It was never about the money, I was with the dude because I loved the dude,” she said about the NDA.

She also claimed that women who were previously with him were made to sign NDAs. “You made the women before me believe that they had no other choice but to take money from you,” LaPaglia alleged.

Zach Bryan announces split from Brianna LaPaglia: ‘I respect and love her’

Last month, when Bryan announced his split from LaPaglia, he said: “I respect and love her with every ounce of my heart. She has loved me unconditionally for a very long time and for that I’ll always thank her.”

He continued: “I have had an incredibly hard year personally and struggled through some pretty severe things. I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to go our different ways. I am not perfect and never will be. Please respect Brianna’s privacy and space in this and if you have it in your heart, mine too.”

Shortly after Bryan’s announcement, LaPaglia responded with a message of her own.

“Hey guys I’m feeling really blindsided right now,” she wrote on her own Instagram story. “Gonna hop off social media for a while and attempt to heal privately, when I’m ready I’ll be back and ready to talk.”

“How can you give someone everything and love them so unconditionally, like through stuff that you shouldn’t, … how can you give every ounce of yourself to someone and be discarded of in a few days?” LaPaglia wrote, telling fans she didn’t want to talk about details and “right now, I wanted to heal privately.”

On Thursday, she said: “My brain’s rewired and I’m scared to make him mad and last week, I didn’t want to talk about it ’cause I was scared.”

Contributing: Jay Stahl, Taijuan Moorman