Gabby Windey says that she “always” had an inkling that she was queer before publicly coming out.
“I always had a whisper,” Windey, 35, admitted on the Friday, April 24, episode of the “In Your Dreams” podcast. “I guess, I’ve never really been homophobic, so I figured I was gay.”
She continued, “When I was a nurse, I had a really good friend who was a lesbian. She was so funny, we had so much fun together. She was the best, and I didn’t even think anything that she was a lesbian.”
According to Windey, her friend was her “first real emotional attraction” to another person.
“I didn’t realize it, and then, I became a [Denver Broncos] cheerleader, which is hyper-heterosexual,” the former Bachelorette recalled. “At the end, all my friends were getting married after cheerleading, having babies. I just wasn’t clicking with the dudes, you know? Also, Denver dudes are terrible.”
Fed up with the “basic” single men in Colorado, Windey left to become a travel nurse.
“It’s very, kind of, Christian values like get married, have kids [and] things like that, and I’m like, ‘That’s just not me,” she said. “At this point, I didn’t really know I was lesbian.”
Windey eventually appeared on Clayton Echard’s season 26 of The Bachelor, subsequently co-leading her own season of The Bachelorette alongside Rachel Recchia. Windey got engaged to Erich Schwer on the show, but they broke up months later in 2022 during her stint on Dancing With the Stars. After finishing the ballroom show in second place, Windey temporarily moved back in with her parents in Colorado.
“Right before I went to bed, like, you’d get these subconscious thoughts and it was, like, ‘What if you’re gay?’ What would your family say?” Windey said. “[I thought], ‘You’d have to tell your dad. Would it be scary?’”
The Love Overboard host eventually returned to Los Angeles and decided that she wanted to date women.
“I had a gay friend and she was taking me to all these events. I went, got on Raya and did boys and girls,” she said. “I went out with this girl … [who] was very feminine and it was both of our first dates going out with a girl, and she tried to kiss me at the end, but I was like, ‘Bye.’ I need someone to take control. I needed a Robby.”
Soon after, Windey met Hacks star Robby Hoffman outside a bar and they hit it off. The couple publicly confirmed their relationship in August 2023 and said “I do” in March 2025.
“Robby’s my forever,” Windey gushed on Friday. “[My life dream] is to be happy with Robby and be an actress.”
