While revealing his split from girlfriend, Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia, earlier this week, Zach Bryan also shared the breakup isn’t the only painful hurdle he’s had to overcome this year.
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In a post on social media publicizing his split with LaPaglia, Bryan shared he’s had a challenging year that has tested him in many ways. “I have had an incredibly hard year personally and struggled through some pretty severe things,” he wrote. “I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to go our different ways. I am not perfect and never will be.”
While he chose not to disclose any of the struggles specifically (besides the breakup), during a recent podcast episode with Bruce Springsteen, the 28-year-old revealed he suffers from imposter syndrome.
"To this day I have really bad impostor syndrome,” he shared, while explaining he still doesn’t consider himself a serious songwriter. “I never in a million years thought I would become a songwriter because I never thought I had the talent. And that’s not a humble thing," he explained, sharing he leaned on songwriting as a form of self-expression during his time in the Navy.
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"When I play [my songs], I’m like, 'There’s no way people enjoy these like they would enjoy a [Bob] Dylan song or a Springsteen song or anything like that.'"
Struggles surrounding his career don’t seem to be the only thing Bryan is battling, he also shared he’s been trying to balance some hardships in his personal life that have kept him from presenting the best version of himself.
“This year has been an awful lot on me in personal ways that no one knows,” he said in a social media follow up to his controversial post claiming he prefers Kanye West over Taylor Swift. He then claimed he’s been “trying to cope and balance too many things at once.”
“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,” he wrote in the breakup announcement this week, which LaPaglia claimed completely blindsided her.
“I’ve been crying for like, five days straight,” LaPaglia shared. “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… It’s really, really heartbreaking and I don’t want to talk about details right now. I don’t want to talk about it yet.”
While feelings are clearly still very fresh, Zach says he still respects and loves her and pleaded that fans give her privacy. “I respect and love her with every ounce of my heart. She has loved me unconditionally for very long time and for that, I’ll always thank her,” he wrote.
“Please respect Brianna’s privacy and space in this and if you have it in your heart, mine too.”
