Zach Bryan Reflects on a Challenging Year: ‘I’ve Struggled Through Some Pretty Severe Things’ Following Brianna Chickenfry Split.Linh

Zach Bryan was dealing with a difficult time ahead of his breakup from Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia.

The “Pink Skies” singer announced his split from podcast host LaPaglia in a statement shared to Instagram on Tuesday, Oct. 22 — and in that statement, revealed that he’s had a tough go of it in recent months.

“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.”

Though Bryan, 28, did not offer further details as to his struggles, he’s been open about hurdles in the past.

Upon releasing his fifth studio album, The Great American Bar Scene, in July, he wrote on Instagram that the record had been a beast to make, and that he was relieved the process was done.

“This record tested the hell out of me and I failed most days it did but we finally made it,” he wrote. “I’m glad this chapter happened but I’m more glad that it’s coming to an end.”

Then in a recent Rolling Stone cover story in which he was interviewed by Bruce Springsteen, the singer-songwriter said he was still getting comfortable with his newfound status as a major music star.

“To this day I have really bad imposter syndrome,” he said, adding, “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, it’s just I never in a million years thought that I would be sitting here with you.”

In September, Bryan also referenced strife in his personal life after he caught flak for saying he preferred Kanye West to Taylor Swift on X (formerly Twitter).

“I’ve been going through a hard time in my own life and I think I was projecting a little,” he wrote in an apology shared to his Instagram Stories. “To be completely honest, it just came off as rude and desensitized to Taylor… Don’t drink and tweet!!”

In a follow-up, he wrote that “this year has been an awful lot on me in personal ways that no one knows,” and said he’s been “trying to cope and balance too many things at once.”

In his breakup statement, Bryan, who’s currently on his sold-out Quittin’ Time arena tour, apologized to fans for any disappointment following the end of his relationship with LaPaglia, 25.

“With everything I am and to anyone I let down, I am sorry,” he wrote. “I try my best in everything. I failed people that love me and mostly myself.”

LaPaglia, for her part, wrote on her Instagram Stories that she was “feeling really blindsided” and planned to temporarily step away from social media following the breakup.

She later clarified in a YouTube video that she was blindsided by Bryan’s post announcing the split, as they’d only broken up the day before and he did not warn her he was sharing the news with the world.

“I’ve been crying for like, five days straight,” she said. “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… like you see the good in them.”

She 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 and I don’t want to talk about details right now. I don’t want to talk about it yet.”

Reps for the stars did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.