Dave Portnoy is defending his BFF co-host Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia following her split from Zach Bryan with a pointed Taylor Swift song.
“Dedicating this to @BChickenfry,” the businessman and podcaster, 47, posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Tuesday, Oct. 22. His short, but pointed tweet included an audio file of Swift’s “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” from her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.
Dave Portnoy; Brianna Chickenfry.
Johnny Louis/Getty; Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
Portnoy’s post came after Bryan announced his and LaPaglia’s separation on Instagram.
“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,” the country singer, 28, wrote on his Instagram Stories on Tuesday.
Adding that he’s “had an incredibly hard year” and “struggled through some pretty severe things,” he said: “I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to go our different ways.”
The former couple met at the ACM Awards in May 2023 and started dating in July 2023.
However, LaPaglia, 25, said she was “blindsided” by Bryan’s breakup announcement.
Zach Bryan and Bri LaPaglia aka ‘Brianna Chickenfry’ at the 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards.
Gilbert Flores/Getty
“Hey guys, I’m feeling really blindsided right now,” she began the post. “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,” the podcast host wrote on her Instagram Stories. “I love you guys so much thank you for all of your kind words. Remember you are so loved and everything’s always gonna be okay.”
Hours later, she uploaded an emotional three-minute video to her Plan Bri UnCut account in which she sat on a bathroom floor, sharing more details about their breakup.
“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?’ ” she said.
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“This is so embarrassing. I don’t give a f—,” LaPaglia continued. “How can you give every ounce of yourself to someone and then be discarded of in a few days? It’s really, really heartbreaking.”
As for Portnoy’s music reference, many Swifties believe “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” was about Swift’s relationship with singer Matty Healy.
In the track, the pop star, 34, slams a former lover for making her believe they were in love, and then abruptly ending things and ruining her summer.
“It wasn’t sexy once it wasn’t forbidden / I would’ve died for your sins / Instead I just died inside,” she sings. “And you deserve prison but you won’t get time / You’ll slide into inboxes and slip through the bars / You crashed my party and your rental car / You said normal girls were ‘boring’ / But you were gone by the morning.”
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