Brianna LaPaglia Says Zach Bryan Relationship Led to Her Friendship Breakup with Grace O’Malley: ‘I Lost My Best Friend’

Brianna LaPaglia is setting the record straight on her friendship with PlanBri Uncut cohost Grace O’Malley.

Amid rumors of a rift between the pair following news that their podcast is coming to an end, the 25-year-old creator opened up about O’Malley, 26, on the BFFs podcast which she cohosts with Josh Richards and Dave Portnoy on Dec. 11.

“I’m always gonna have love for Grace [and] will always cherish everything that we did with PlanBri,” she explained, addressing her recent silence on the matter.

“I’ve just kinda let everyone make their own opinions,” LaPaglia continued. “But it comes to a point where I have to just lay it all out there and defend myself.”

LaPaglia noted that she first started PlanBri Uncut as a solo podcast while she was in college before asking O’Malley to be a part of it when they moved to New York together.

LaPaglia explained that she originally wanted to do two episodes a week of the podcast — one with O’Malley and another solo episode — but that idea was shut down and the pair ended up doing the episodes together, calling it, “the favorite part of my week forever.”

LaPaglia then explained that the breakdown of her friendship with O’Malley began as she dated country singer Zach Bryan, claiming that O’Malley “never defended me” despite knowing about the alleged emotional abuse she dealt with from Bryan, which she previously opened up about in November.

“She knew everything behind the scenes,” LaPaglia claimed. “When the internet started attacking me, they only lifted Grace up when they were beating me down. And it was, like, whatever, because it helped her career and she was fine and happy about it. But it got to a point where she was never defending me.”

“I went to her in May, and I was like, ‘Grace, you know everything that I’m going through and you still refuse to defend me online because it helps build you up,'” she continued. “She would always be, like, ‘Well I know the truth. Everyone knows that we’re best friends and everything you’ve done for me.’ So I’m, like, ‘Why don’t you f—— say that online and stop feeding into this narrative.”  

LaPaglia claimed that Bryan also played a role in ending her friendship with O’Malley, noting that she was devastated she “lost [her] best friend.” When her breakup with Bryan was announced in October, she also decided to end PlanBri Uncut on Oct. 15. “We’re sitting there, pretending to be friends and I didn’t feel seen by her [so I] set a boundary,” she said, adding, “I gave her everything and I would do it all over again.”

Reps for LaPaglia, O’Malley and Bryan did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

LaPaglia first teased a new iteration of PlanBri Uncut without O’Malley on her Instagram Stories when Spotify Wrapped came out on Dec. 4. O’Malley then posted a statement on her Instagram Stories on Dec. 6, confirming the end of her time on the podcast and claiming it was the first time she was “hearing about” LaPaglia’s new plans for the podcast.

“[I’m] proud of what we built, nostalgic for all these years and frankly outright heartbroken that this chapter has closed,” she said, per Us Weekly. “But, we agreed to make a joint statement, so I replied, cried, and chose not to repost or say anything until it was time.”

O’Malley then called her time on the podcast the “favorite part of this chapter” of her life, noting that she was “eternally grateful“ to get to “work with my best friend.” She also confirmed she planned to stay with Barstool and would be back “chit-chatting on a weekly basis.”