All About Gabby Windey: Nurse, Cheerleader & Bachelorette Turned The Traitors Star
Get familiar with the former The Bachelor and The Bachelorette contestant as she competes in Scotland.
The Traitors, Peacock's award-winning competition reality series, puts larger-than-life personalities together to compete in a series of missions to earn a cash prize of up to $250,000. The catch? Hidden amongst the Faithful contestants are the Traitors, whose goal is to eliminate the Faithful and claim the prize for themselves.
With the new season having premiered on January 9, 2025, we've spent time looking at the cast members who have been lurking the halls of Ardross Castle in Scotland as we get to know them.
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Yet again, The Traitors' producers have cast an eclectic mix of contestants, including reality stars, models, and even an actual royal. Here, we shine a spotlight on Gabby Windey, a familiar face from reality dating shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.
Is Gabby Windey playing The Traitors as a Traitor or a Faithful?
Gabby Windey was chosen by host Alan Cumming to play The Traitors as a Faithful.
Who is Gabby Windey?
Gabby was born on January 2, 1991, in O'Fallon, Illinois, to parents Rosemary Hewitt and Patrick Windey. She has an older sister, Jazz.
If you love to watch others fall in love on reality television, there's a good chance you already know Gabby Windey from her two seasons looking for love in all the wrong places: She was a contestant on Season 26 of The Bachelor and co-starred in Season 19 of The Bachelorette alongside Rachel Recchia. Gabby got engaged to contestant Erich Schwer, whom she chose as the winner on her season of The Bachelorette, in May 2022, but the pair called it off in November of that same year. (More on that below!)
After participating on The Bachelor shows, her popularity with audiences landed her on Season 31 of Dancing with the Stars in 2022. She and dance partner Val Chmerkovskiy (the brother of The Traitors Season 2 contestant Maksim Chmerkovskiy) placed second for the season. And if you attended the Dancing with the Stars Live 2023 tour, then you likely caught Gabby as the effervescent host.
Gabby Windey is a cheerleader and an ICU nurse
Before her double dip into the fishbowl of the reality dating sphere, Gabby spent five years professionally cheerleading for the Denver Broncos. But all the while, she was also working as a registered nurse in the medical ICU at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital after graduating from UC Colorado Springs’ nursing school in 2013, per The Athletic.
Her fifth year as a Broncos cheerleader was put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, during which she worked on the front lines at the hospital.
"I’ll be getting fully game-day ready with hair and makeup, and I’ll have a sparkly outfit that I can’t wait to put on,” Windey told The Athletic of auditioning for the then-delayed NFL season from her home during lockdown. “It’s different because you’re in your living room, but it doesn’t lose its meaning. I’m really grateful that we’re able to somewhat continue the audition process and feel a little normal.”
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Of working as a nurse during the pandemic, Gabby told the outlet, "We’re all leaning on each other, and it really becomes a new normal kind of fast. All of health care is ever-changing because we’re always trying to make sure we’re doing things the best way, which comes with evidence-based practice and re-evaluating the way we’re doing things. So we are used to change. But it is hard and, of course, this is different because of the seriousness of it and how many people it’s affecting."
For her service on the frontlines of the pandemic, Gabby was named co-winner of the Pop Warner Humanitarian Award, which is normally reserved for NFL players and made her the first woman and NFL cheerleader to receive the award.
She left the Broncos franchise behind in 2021, writing in an Instagram post: "No words can describe my experience as a DBC. I will always be extremely grateful for these years and the people I’ve met along the way."
Did Gabby find lasting love on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette?
Gabby did not find her forever love on either of her season-long quests on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. But her experiences on both shows sure did incite an unexpected but lasting twist regarding her love life today.
During Season 26 of The Bachelor, Gabby and fellow contestant Rachel Recchia were the final runners-up for the affections of the season's Bachelor, 28-year-old Clayton Echard. In the end, he didn't choose either of the ladies and instead proposed to wedding videographer Susie Evans, who rejected him on live television. Ouch.
In turn, Gabby and Rachel were named the first-ever co-contestants on Season 19 of The Bachelorette. By the end of the season, romance seemed truly in the air for Gabby when she got engaged to her show Prince Charming, Erich Schwer. However, by November of that year, the pair broke up.
In a statement to People Magazine, Gabby inferred that her gig on Dancing with the Stars wasn't conducive to deepening their relationship. She said, "I think life is just really busy for the both of us right now. We're just kinda, you know, going forward with each of our individual interests and supporting each other from afar."
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Who is Gabby Windey dating? Meet girlfriend Robby Hoffman
About a year later, when Gabby made an update appearance on the morning talk show The View, she shocked everyone when she announced that she found her better match in female comedian Robby Hoffman.
“I always just want to live my truth, and my story,” Gabby told the co-hosts. “And so I have been seeing someone for a couple 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!”
As of September of 2024, Gabby and Robby are still going strong and posting regularly about each other on social media.
Now, we'll see if Gabby will follow in the footsteps of fellow The Bachelor and The Traitors alumni Peter Weber when it comes to keenly assessing the Faithful and Traitors of her season.
New episodes of The Traitors Season 3 premiere on Peacock on Thursdays at 9/8c, with the season finale and reunion premiering on March 6.
All episodes of Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream right now on Peacock.
