Gabby Windey kept her new romance from her fans — and her ex-fiancé, Erich Schwer — before publicly announcing she’s dating a woman.
“Knowing how people cared, I just want to be honest. I don’t want to live and not be living my full truth,” Windey, 32, said on the Wednesday, August 2, episode of The View. “I don’t want to do it to myself or my girlfriend or other people who really care about me and feel like they know me.”
When asked how Schwer, 30, took the news, Windey confessed, “He doesn’t know.” The View cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin quipped: “He knows now!”
Windey further explained that she chose to share her sexuality update — and reveal her partner as comedian and writer Robby Hoffman — on the morning talk show because her “story has been told for [her] so many times being on TV with editing and production.” This time around, she wanted to do it on her terms.
“Obviously, I was on dating shows dating men and a Broncos cheerleader, so it was like my whole world was male-gaze. [So] it took me a while to stop questioning and just start trusting and I’m fully trusted and I’m here,” Windey told the audience. “I think that’s really the big takeaway is, like, maybe it’s not so much — like obviously it’s about sexuality, but it’s also the person I met. She is so special. She makes me feel so safe, so loved.”
The former Bachelorette noted that her new relationship is “a love that I always wanted going on these dating shows.”
Fans first met Windey on Clayton Echard’s season of The Bachelor. She was then the co-lead for season 19 of The Bachelorette alongside Rachel Recchia.
Schwer proposed during the season finale, which aired in September 2022. “You literally make me feel like I’m the only person in the world. And I will fight every day for the rest of my life to keep that feeling. I love you, Gabby Windey. You are amazing,” he said before popping the question. “You are the most amazing person I’ve ever met. It’s you and me until the wheels fall off. I’m head over heels in love with you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
The pair, however, announced their split in November 2022 while Windey was competing on Dancing With the Stars in Los Angeles.
“A lot of you are reaching out with questions about me and Gabby. The reality is that we ultimately were not each other’s people — it’s hard when there isn’t one thing to put your finger on,” Schwer wrote via his Instagram Story at the time. “We met in a very unique situation and in a very unique way and I’m grateful we did. I would never take it back.”
The following month, Windey exclusively told Us Weekly that “compatibility” was the reason behind her and Schwer’s breakup.
“I think, truly, it was just getting to know the relationship in-person because we were long-distance and before that kind of in a bubble [while The Bachelorette was airing],” she said in December 2022. “Sometimes you don’t always know the questions to ask or it’s up to the other person to really know themselves and bring forth their truth. So I think it was a lot of getting to know each other in real life.”
Windey revealed on Wednesday that she and Hoffman have been dating for the past three months. “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,” she said on the show.
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The former reality star recalled hearing a “whisper” in her that “got louder and louder” until she finally paid attention.
Windey proceeded to share a series of photos with her girlfriend via Instagram on Wednesday, joking in the caption, “Told you I’m a girl’s girl!!”
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