Bachelorette fan-favorite Gabby Windey shared some big news on this morning’s episode of The View. After breaking off her engagement with Erich Schwer late last year, the star revealed that she’s now dating a woman.
Once Windey settled into her seat on the hit daytime talk show, she came out to co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin in her first public announcement regarding the shift in her dating life.
“I’ve had such an amazing experience with my time on Bachelor and Bachelorette dating all those men. That’s how people know me,” she said. “I always want to live my truth and my story. So I have been seeing someone for a couple months and I’ve been keeping it a little more private because it is a bigger story and a bigger conversation because I’m dating a girl.”
The news shocked the co-hosts, including Hostin, who said she “didn’t see that twist coming,” to which Windey replied, “I don’t think anyone did. Not even me.”
The reality star, who came in second place on the most recent season of Dancing with the Stars, then opened up to the panel about when she realized she was into women.
“I think it was always a whisper in me that got louder and louder. I didn’t really know to pay attention to it,” Windey said. “I think, you know, when this happens there’s some shame surrounding it. So I think I had to, like, a little bit navigate through the shame. Like, what is it? Where is it coming from? But like I said, I always want to kind of do me, do what I want, figure it out later.”
Windey later gushed over her girlfriend, whom she called “the best,” before admitting that she could “see the future for once.”
“I just want to be honest. I don’t want to live and not be living my full truth,” she explained. “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.”
She added, “I was nervous coming here, but it feels like a huge weight lifted just being able to talk about it publicly.”
The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.