No doubt being a contestant on The Bachelor would be an intimidating experience. Thirty women agree to give up their phones, jobs and lives for a couple of months to move into a mansion with the other women, all of whom are hoping to win the heart of one man. Gabby Windey, who is on the current season of The Bachelor with Clayton Echard, said her job as an NFL cheerleader actually gave her a leg up on the tricky situation.
Gabby Windey is a cheerleader for the Denver Broncos, so working closely with other women was nothing new for her when she arrived at Bachelor Mansion for Season 26 of the ABC reality dating show. Windey recently spoke to the Talking It Out podcast about how being an NFL cheerleader and being around other beautiful, talented women regularly helped prepare her for the situation she’d face on The Bachelor.
As a woman, kind of always being around women, part of my life that I love is you learn how to really empower each other and respect each other, and [I] kind of came from a non-competition standpoint, which I was able to carry with me with my Bachelor experience. I’ll be the first to say I got close with all the girls, and it really added to my experience.
It is pretty cool to think about how Gabby Windey’s experiences working with a group of women who would be similar to the women she lived with in Bachelor Mansion – the "cream of the crop," as Gabby called them on the podcast – would enhance her experience on the show. She was able to go into the situation not thinking about how to beat the other contestants, but rather with a history of respecting and supporting those around her.
With The Bachelor experience being so unique, and with the contestants unable to have contact with the outside world, being able to form friendships with the other women in the house seems almost vital to the experience, despite the fact that they’re all dating the same man. Gabby Windey seemed to think so, saying that getting close to the other women made her time on the show more enjoyable.
How far will Gabby Windey’s preparations take her on The Bachelor? We’ll have to tune in to find out how Clayton Echard's season progresses (unless you do want to know the rumors, in which case you can get spoilers about his final three here). What we do know from the ABC previews is that Echard's situation appears to get pretty complicated when he falls in love with three different women. Check out what's in store for this season.
Oh my. Hopefully Gabby Windey's friendships with her fellow contestants weren't the only good part of her experience. That preview seemed to show an awful lot of misery. The Bachelor airs at 8 p.m. ET Mondays on ABC. Be sure to check out our 2022 TV Schedule to see what other premieres are coming up.
