“Bachelorette” star Gabby Windey comes out

Gabby Windey, the woman who co-starred in season 19 of the heterosexual romantic reality TV competition The Bachelorette, has revealed that she’s dating out comedian Robby Hoffman. Hoffman has written for several TV series.

Windey, a former intensive care unit nurse and cheerleader for the Denver Broncos, revealed her same-sex relationship while appearing on the all-female daytime talk show The View on Wednesday.

Related:

“Bachelor” star Colton Underwood comes out as gay

“I literally remember praying to God, the morning I found out that I was a bachelor, and thanking him for making me straight.”

Windey starred in season 26 of The Bachelor in 2021 and finished as one of two co-runners-up. After the end of The Bachelorette, she got engaged to male contestant Erich Schwer who she chose as the winner. However, the couple broke up on November 4, 2022. Windey then appeared on season 31 of Dancing with the Stars and finished in second place.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

“I’ve had such an amazing experience just with my time on Bachelor and Bachelorette dating all of those men and now, that’s how people know me,” she told the co-hosts on The View.

She then revealed, “I have been seeing someone for a couple of months and I’ve been keeping it a little more private because it is like a bigger story and a bigger conversation because I’m dating a girl.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gabby Windey (@gabby.windey)

The View‘s members expressed delight as Windey and the audience started applauding her coming out.

The show’s co-host Sunny Hostin remarked, “That’s a twist. I didn’t see that twist coming.”

“No, I don’t think anyone did,” Windey said.

“Did you see it coming?” Hostin asked.

Windey then explained, “I think it was always a whisper in me that just got louder and louder. And I didn’t really know to pay attention to it.” She also said it took her a little time to understand and navigate through the shame.

The View co-hosts commented that there’s nothing to be ashamed of and that societal culture makes people feel ashamed.

Co-host Joy Behar then asked if Windey was still also interested in men. Windey said she thinks she’s only interested in women before clarifying that she’s only interested in her girlfriend.

“She’s so special, she makes me feel so safe, so loved — a love that I always wanted going on these dating shows,” Widely said, according to TV Line.

After months of dating her girlfriend, she said that she “could see the future for once,” so she decided to tell her “fairly conservative” parents. Even though “both of their jaws dropped to the floor” when she told them, and even though she said a same-sex relationship was “not something my parents ever imagined for me,” they accepted the news, Widely added.

Hostin asked, “What made you want to come here and share that? Because that is something that’s very personal.”

“I just want to be honest,” Widely said. “I don’t want to live and not be living my full truth. I don’t want to do that to myself. I don’t want to do it to my girlfriend. I don’t want to do it to other people who really care about me and feel like they know me. And that’s what I wanted: a discussion with women to just be able to talk about it on my terms because my story has been told for me so many times, being on TV with editing and production… So I wanted this, just to have a chance to beat people to the punch. They’re going to say what they’re going to say.”

However, she also said that she had not yet told Schwer, her ex-fiance. The View‘s co-hosts commented, “Well, he knows now.”

One publication noted that several former female Bachelor contestants have come out after appearing on the show, including Kaitlyn Bristowe, Demi Burnett, Alexa Caves, Elizabeth Corrigan, Jasmine Goode, Jaimi King, Bekah Purifoy, Melissa Schreiber, and Becca Tilley. According to Autostraddle, in 2016 two competitors in The Bachelor: Australia, Megan Marx and Tiffany Scanlon, began dating each other.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The View (@theviewabc)