Not a ZB fan, eh?
Of course it’s no surprise that Barstool Sports founder and owner Dave Portnoy is supporting Brianna Chickenfry in her very public breakup with country music superstar Zach Bryan.
The couple announced their split on Tuesday, with Zach confirming the breakup in a statement on Instagram after screenshots began circulating showing the singer on a celebrity dating app.
“Addressing something: Brianna and me have broken up with each other and 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.
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. With everything I am and to anyone I let down, I am sorry. I try my best in everything. I failed people that love me and mostly myself.”
But Brianna (whose real name is Brianna LaPaglia) said she was “blindsided” by Zach going public with the news, saying that she was hoping to be able to deal with it privately for a while:
“I’m probably not gonna post this for a little while, but I just woke up to Zach posting on his Instagram that we broke up, and I had no idea that post was going up.
He didn’t text me, he didn’t call me, I just woke up to a bunch of texts like ‘Are you okay?’ and I’m like, did my f*****n’ dad die? And yeah, so I’m like completely blindsided by that. I also genuinely feel like I have… see how swollen my face is?
I’ve been crying for, like, five days straight. Sorry if this video is gonna be a lot of jumping around, but I’m just at the point where it’s like, how can you give someone everything, and love them so unconditionally through stuff that you shouldn’t… because you just love them and you want them, you see the good in them…. this is so embarrassing.
I don’t give a f***. How can you give every ounce of yourself to someone and then be discarded in a few days? It’s really, really heartbreaking and I don’t wanna talk about details right now.”
Brianna is herself a Barstool Sports personality, hosting her Plan Bri podcast along with the BFFs podcast alongside Portnoy and Josh Richards. And Zach was a frequent topic of conversation on the podcast, dating back to when the relationship started and Brianna telling the story of how they first met.
But now that they’ve split, it seems that Portnoy isn’t hesitating to have his employee’s back.
The noted Swiftie took to Twitter after the breakup became public to share a Taylor Swift song, “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” which he said was dedicated to Brianna.
Dedicating this to @BChickenfry https://t.co/H5aqvKbJ87
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) October 22, 2024
And though they released an episode of BFFs yesterday, it was actually recorded before the breakup so Portnoy and Brianna haven’t had a chance to address it on their podcast. But he’s already made it clear how he feels about Zach Bryan.
During today’s episode of another podcast, The Unnamed Show, Portnoy had some harsh words when asked if he was now a “Zach Bryan hater.”
“Yes. I was never a liker. How do you like that? I was never a liker…
I think he’s a fraud. Every time I met him I was not comfortable with him. Certain guys where you’re like, ‘Ok I kinda like this guy, he’s a gives good vibes guy.’ This guy never gave that vibe to me.”
"I was never a liker. I think he's a fraud." – Dave on Zach Bryan pic.twitter.com/OAMXFFA6Hl
— The Unnamed Show (@barstoolunnamed) October 24, 2024
Of course Portnoy did make an appearance at one of Zach’s shows, where he joined Zach onstage during “Revival.”
@bffspodTurns out singing Revival in front of 70,000 people was a little more complicated than Dave thought it would be♬ original sound – BFFs Pod
But it sounds like he’s never really been a big fan of the guy – so don’t expect to see Portnoy onstage at a Zach Bryan show again any time soon.
