Zach Bryan has confirmed his marriage to Samantha Leonard.
Bryan, 29, took to Instagram on Wednesday, December 31, and shared a black-and-white photo of him carrying Leonard, 28, as she sported a strapless white bridal gown with a feathery hem. The happy couple smiled as Leonard held a wine glass.
“Tougher than the rest,” he captioned his post, which also included a video of him performing the Bruce Springsteen song with the same name at their wedding reception.
Earlier Wednesday, the country star was spotted holding Leonard in his arms after exchanging vows in Spain, multiple outlets reported. A video posted via Instagram showed the newlyweds laughing as they hopped into a convertible and drove off into the proverbial sunset.
The day before the wedding, Bryan shared a photo of him with his guy friends, adding a caption that cited lyrics from the Black Eyes Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling.” On December 29, Bryan posted a clip of him crooning a heartfelt song on the guitar that seemingly referenced his upcoming nuptials.
“I made a woman fall in love and made our young hearts cry,” he sang. “I’m on an aeroplane bound to Spain tonight.”
On Wednesday, Leonard posted a clip via her Instagram Stories in which she and Bryan touched down on an airplane.
The couple were first linked in August. That October, Bryan paid tribute to his new love via Instagram, writing, “From bull runs to all the bulls***, today is your birthday and I love you Samantha Marie. To the only woman who can hike six miles in Chanel flats, skydive over the alps and catch a bigger fish than me all in the same day. Hope your day was as graceful as you are.”
Sparks flew between Bryan and Leonard one year after his not-so-amicable split with Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia, whom he dated from the summer of 2023 up to fall 2024.
“Brianna and me [sic] have broken up with each other and I respect and love her with every ounce of my heart. She has loved me unconditionally for a very long time and for that, I’ll always thank her,” Bryan said in a statement in October 2024. “I’ve had an incredibly hard year personally and struggled through some pretty severe things. I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to go our different ways. I am not perfect and never will be.”
LaPaglia, 26, has said that the breakup blindsided her and accused Bryan of being emotionally abusive. (Us Weekly reached out for comment at the time. Bryan hasn’t responded to the allegations.)
LaPaglia’s fans, meanwhile, have noted the physical resemblance between her and Leonard.
“Next question is [one] that I got a million times. ‘What do you think about Zach’s girlfriend looking exactly like you?’” LaPaglia said during an October episode of her “Plan Bri Uncut” podcast. “I think that is narcissism textbook 101, like, that’s what narcissists do. They just go and find another version of you to date.”
She continued, “People are like, ‘Are you creeped out? Are you mad? Are you flattered?’ I am flattered to be honest. I dyed my hair so that people [would] stop sending me every single picture that he posts of her, and I blocked him. I don’t wanna see this [and] I don’t want to indulge in anything that he does.”
