Brianna LaPaglia Opens Up on ‘Live From Bed’ About the Year That Nearly Broke Her

Brianna LaPaglia didn’t come on Live from Bed with Jade Iovine to rehash headlines—she came to talk honestly about what the last year has actually felt like in her own brain. From a friendship breakup to a brutal romantic split and signing up for Special Forces, LaPaglia (more-commonly known as “Briana Chickenfry” has had almost every major life event dissected by millions of strangers online.

On the podcast, she opens up about why she said yes to being screamed at by military men on TV, the camo “tight pants” saga that turned a promising fling into a hard ick, and the price of being the girl who shares everything on the internet. 

‘Live From Bed’: Brianna LaPaglia Reflects on 2025

Below are highlights from the conversation, adapted from Live from Bed with Jade Iovine.

Why did you say yes to ‘Special Forces’ when it looks like literal hell?

“I was looking through the clips and I’m like, ‘What was I thinking?’…I’m very competitive and I’m always up for a challenge. I love to be active…I took it as an opportunity that I would never get. And I honestly, to this point where we are in the show, I didn’t even think I would make it this far. Like I just wanted to do it to say I tried and I just kept going.”

How intense did it really get out there—and when did you realize you were claustrophobic?

“They’re no joke. They are actually in your face hitting you, pushing you…It’s weird watching it and you can be like, ‘Guys, you’re just on a show. Like you don’t have to act like this,’ but they’re fully treating it and they make it known on day one, like you’re in military boot camp…If you f**k up, if you laugh, if you do something wrong…you’re punished for it…If you talk back, you have to run six miles with your backpack on…So you lock in. You’re like, ‘No way, I’m not getting in trouble…’

…I did break the fourth wall…I was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ And I was sobbing and a cameraman’s in my face while I’m climbing up a mountain with 40 pounds of chains on my neck. I take the camera. I tell him to get the f**k out of my face, throw the camera. This man almost falls off the mountain…

…They put us through these tunnels that were two feet by two feet…they’re pitch black and the dust, the ceilings are caving in on you…it is a half a mile long. And then it breaks into a water portion where you have to dive underwater…And my whole body convulsed…That’s when I realized I had claustrophobia.”

What actually happened in the ‘tight pants saga’?

“I went to my sister’s wedding in Portugal and I didn’t know this whole time she had invited someone to set me up with to this wedding…I hit it off with this guy…then he starts texting me. We’re like FaceTiming, and this one night he’s like going to a concert and he sends me a picture of his lower half, like to show me his shoes or something…Never send an unsolicited outfit pic to a girl. And it’s like waist down and he had these pants, they’re f**king painted on him. Like they are the tightest pants I have ever seen in my life. They’re also, I left this part out and I feel a little bad about saying it, but they’re camo and I’m like, ‘No. No, no, no, no, no, no’…

…So I’m just going to avoid that by ghosting him. So then I made that TikTok and one of his friends f**king sent him the TikTok and being like, is this about you? And then he sends me back ‘‘Thought my new jeans might cheer you up,’ and he sent me a picture of the biggest jeans ever. And I was like, okay, that’s kind of a green flag. He can laugh at himself. I kind of like that.”

Which breakup was harder publicly—the friendship or the boyfriend?

“I think the hardest thing to go through publicly was [the friendship breakup] because I didn’t say much about, like, I like kept a lot of things to myself and also, I was going through the darkest time of my actual personal life during that, and then for the internet to like turn on me and hate me. After I just turned down $12 million to help women because they didn’t like a friendship breakup, that was harder to go through publicly than the breakup stuff because I knew how that was going to go…I knew that it would help a lot of people, which it did, and that outweighs the bad for me.”

What part of your healing stayed off the internet—and what actually helped?

“I don’t really talk about therapy online. But therapy was a big help to me. I am not in it anymore just because I travel so much…but just being very career oriented has helped me get my mind off of things and focus on me…Therapy definitely helped a lot…

…I really share quite a lot of my healing journey online. I also share how it’s not very much like linear. I’ll have great months and with what I experienced, I suffer from [Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] and I’ll have episodes where I like can’t leave my room and I’m like fully back in it as if it had happened a month ago…I try to be honest and open with that because my life can look very glamorous and fun…but I just try to remind people that that’s a glimpse and I’ll also show them me crying on my bathroom floor…so I try to mix in the good and the bad.”

What’s your least healthy coping mechanism when everything falls apart?

“When things are really horrible and terrible, sometimes I will like bender, like just not even in the sense of bender like, party, party, party. But I will just book myself three weeks where I’m on a plane, I’m on a train, the club, another bus, this, there, like I won’t give myself a second to think about it or feel it because I know if I do that it’s gonna hurt. So I’ll just run myself rampant, spread myself way too thin, and I regret it.”

How has your relationship with yourself changed now that you’re truly single?

“I’ve always been very much an independent girly. I play mom in my life for everyone, which through therapy and through like my two breakups, I realized like that’s a me problem. So I tend to form strong relationships with people that need help…I just would take care of people and take care of people, and I realized I was like, although I was fine and I was independent and I was taking care of myself, I realized I need taking care of too…

…I feel like I’m just my best friend now and it’s so cool. I love spending alone time…This is the longest in my life since I was 16 that I’ve been single and I fear that I have found the key to life and I am like…’I never want to be in a relationship again,’ which is also a little sad, right?”

What would your teenage self say if she met you now?

“She would be like, ‘I am so f**king proud of you. I haven’t changed much since I was a kid. I think they would be the same. I’d just be a little smarter…I always knew that I wanted to do something along these lines, but younger me always thought it was not feasible or like it was just not a tangible thing I could do. So she would be like, ‘F**k yeah, you actually did it. Like, I’m so proud of you.’”

To hear the full conversation, listen to Live From Bed wherever you get your podcasts.

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