Zach Bryan’s ex Brianna LaPaglia says Sports Illustrated photoshoot is country singer’s ‘favorite f— you’

Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia “doesn’t ask anyone’s permission.”

The 25-year-old podcast host made her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit debut on the cover of January’s digital edition, and while the social media influencer sees the photo spread as an opportunity to move on from a difficult breakup with ex-boyfriend Zach Bryan, she also wants a little revenge.

“It’s just, on a small level, my favorite f— you,” she told Sports Illustrated in the interviewtitled “Brianna LaPaglia doesn’t ask anyone’s permission.”

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She added: “This is me and I wanted to do this and now I’m on the digital cover.”

LaPaglia has been vocal about the deterioration of her relationship with the country music star, which she described as emotionally abusive, even claiming that Bryan’s team offered her $12 million to sign a non-disclosure agreement after their breakup.

The two began dating in the summer of 2023 and broke up last fall.

LaPaglia said that speaking out about her struggles in her relationship led to women reaching out to her to talk about their own experiences with emotional abuse.

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“During the hardest time of my life, it’s probably been one of the most rewarding things that’s ever happened to me, to be able to help people in a way that I feel is much more meaningful than what my old content was.” LaPaglia said. “I know it’s also helpful to post silly things and have funny videos for people to see and it helps people get out of reality but actually changing lives by coming forward and being able to give people a shoulder to lean on, or a person to cry on, it’s just out of this world.”

Still, there are people on social media who don’t believe her story about Bryan, or who accuse her of speaking out for publicity.

“I just wish I could hang out with every one of my haters one-on-one, to be honest,” she told SI. “I’d say, ‘I wish you could just see me for who I actually am, not as a reflection of the s—- cycle on TikTok where it’s just fed into an algorithm — it wouldn’t sometime be possible for you to see a positive video of me at this point, because once you’re on the negative side, that’s all that’s fed to you.”

She’s also a bit tired of TikTok itself and isn’t sweating the impending US ban.

“The way I feel right now is I’m like: Pop a bottle of champagne! Let’s get rid of this horrible, hateful app,” she joked.

She also said she is done hanging out with A-list celebrities.

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“My life for a year was hanging out with all these famous people and doing all these extravagant things, and if anything, their lives seem a lot better than my family back home, where they’re just regular people who are happy and in live.”

“My life for a year was hanging out with all these famous people and doing all these extravagant things, and if anything, their lives seem a lot better than my family back home, where they’re just regular people who are happy and in live.”

—Brianna LaPaglia

LaPaglia told the magazine that Bryan made her feel like she needed to “tamp myself down.”

“When I walk into a room, I want to talk to everybody,” she said. “When the relationship first started, it became a problem for him; I talked too much, or I was too much, and maybe the spotlight wasn’t on him enough.”

Now that the relationship is over, she feels like her old self again.

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“I’m walking down the street, I’m at the crosswalk — I’m striking up a conversation,” she said. “I’m in the bodega talking to the bodega guy for 20 minutes too long now. I’m finally talking to my hairdresser again where I used to just sit in the chair. I’m finding that little spark of life back in myself now that a person who always felt like a cloud of doom over me is gone.”

It’s also not lost on her that she was supposed to host the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue’s 60th anniversary red carpet last year, but backed out at the last minute because Bryan told her it would be “trashy.”

“It’s a lot more than me looking quote-unquote hot in a bathing suit — it’s me reclaiming who I am as a woman, reclaiming my body and my decisions and my choices,” she told the magazine. “This cover is me being me again and taking control of my life. This is my body; my body is not that experience and even though I’m not 100% in it right now, it is me. It doesn’t have something to do with anyone else.”

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Bryan for comment.