The Bachelorette alum Gabby Windey has revealed how her "conservative" family handled the news that she's sexually attracted to women and is in a serious relationship with one.
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Gabby shared on Wednesday's episode of The View how her attraction to women started out as a "whisper" inside of her that grew "louder" in the past couple of years.
And The Bachelor alum and Dancing with the Stars Season 31 winner acknowledged that nobody probably saw this coming.
"Not even me, but here we are," Gabby confessed with a laugh.
Gabby went on to recall how her romance with Robby began and when she felt the need to tell her family about her sexuality.
"When my girlfriend and I... started dating, I was like, 'We'll see where it goes.' And then it was going very well. So I was like, 'I can see the future,' for once. And it just felt so right," Gabby shared on The View.
"And so I was like, 'Okay, I've got to tell [my family]. I can't wait for the perfect time. There's never a good time.'"
Gabby said since she and her family currently live in different states, she decided to FaceTime them with the news.
"Both of [my parents]' jaws dropped to the floor," Gabby revealed. "But they were like, 'We just want you to be happy.' And it means a lot. They've really been supportive."
Gabby said of her loved ones, "I do kind of come from a conservative family in a very heteronormative world. Obviously I was on dating shows dating men, I was a Broncos cheerleader for five years, and my whole world was kind of male gaze."
"So I feel it's not something my parents ever imagined for me," she added.
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Gabby therefore suggested her relatives may need a little more time to fully understand and embrace her new relationship with a woman, given it's such a major -- and seemingly sudden -- life change.
"I think it's going to take time, just like [for] the rest of the world and just like for me. You know, it took me a while to stop questioning and start trusting. Now I'm fully trusting and I'm here!" Gabby noted.
The brunette beauty concluded, "I always just want to do me, do what I want, and figure it out later."
Gabby and her The Bachelor pal Rachel Recchia both got dumped simultaneously by Clayton Echard on the show's 26th season after they both slept with him in the Fantasy Suites and met his family.
Clayton ultimately chose Susie Evans -- a "once-in-a-lifetime woman," as he called her -- as his winner, but Susie was hurt by his actions on the show and didn't begin dating him until after the show taped in the real world.
After Susie and Clayton announced they were dating on The Bachelor: After the Final Rose in March 2022, Gabby and Rachel both went on to star on The Bachelorette's nineteenth season, hoping to find true love.
Gabby got engaged to her winner, Erich Schwer, on The Bachelorette's Season 19 finale in September 2022, but they called off their engagement, in an alleged amicable manner, less than two months later.
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When asked if she'd be The Bachelorette star again, Gabby revealed on the April 25 episode of the "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe" podcast, "I would honestly be the Bachelorette again -- for the right price."
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After Gabby and Erich broke up, Gabby set her sights on her Dancing with the Stars Season 31 competitor, Vinny Guadagnino.
Gabby admitted she had a "crush" on Vinny and would "of course" go on a date with him if he asked.
The pair flirted on social media for months beginning in November 2022 and spent a lot of time together on the Dancing with the Stars tour earlier this year, but Vinny confirmed in January that he and Gabby weren't dating.
"It takes a lot more for me than just, like, a couple Instagram comments to be dating someone," Vinny explained to Us Weekly, adding, "I would actually go to dinner with Gabby. It's just that we just met, you know what I mean? It's not like anything serious."
Vinny, however, gushed about how he has "great chemistry" with the brunette beauty.
"We're both, like, comedians. So, that's why we get along and that's also why we flirt so much on Instagram because we have that same banter with each other," Vinny shared at the time.
Gabby told Kaitlyn on "Off the Vine" that she and Vinny still talked all the time and he liked her, however, she said dating would be difficult since she lives in Los Angeles and he lives in New York.
Erich, meanwhile, recently shared how his mental health struggled during and after The Bachelorette.
Erich announced in mid-February he was in a new relationship with model and social media influencer Elizabeth Turner.
Elizabeth's Instagram account showed they were hanging out all the time and had a strong relationship, but she has since deleted their photos, resulting in speculation they've split.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
