Bachelor Nation
Why Are ‘Bachelor’s Clayton Echard & Gabby Windey Fighting? Their Breakup & New Feud
Clayton Echard and Gabby Windey met in the fall of 2021 on Season 26 of The Bachelor, which aired at the beginning of 2022. After a messy breakup on national television, they went their own separate ways and seemingly put the drama behind them.
Flash forward to April 2025, and the reality stars are back to publicly fighting. With a lot of back and forth between them, it’s hard to keep track of what exactly started this whole ordeal. Scroll down for a deep dive into their breakup and what’s happening three years later.
Clayton and Gabby’s Bachelor breakup
Windey made it to the final 3 on The Bachelor, along with Susie Evans and Rachel Recchia, and that’s where things completely fell apart for Echard. He went on fantasy suite dates with Recchia and Windey first, but on Evans’ date, she began having doubts. She told Echard that she didn’t want to be with him if he’d been physically intimate with someone else.
Things got tense, leading Echard to admit to Evans that he had been intimate with the other two women. Their relationship ended, and Echard continued to pursue Windey and Recchia. Before moving forward with them, he opened up about everything that happened, including how he slept with both of them and how he was in love with all three women.
ABC
Although Recchia and Windey were heartbroken, Echard begged them to stay and continue the journey. Windey reluctantly agreed, and he introduced both of them to his parents the following day. However, he then realized that Evans was the one he really wanted to be with, and he sought her out to ask for another chance. After she agreed, he dumped Windey and Recchia … at the same time. Ouch.
“You asked me to stay because you were pissed and your pride was hurt because Susie left. But now you [want me to go],” Windey told Echard after the breakup. “So what the f**k is the difference? A couple days doesn’t seem to be much of a difference. Except then it was my decision and now it’s your decision so it’s easier.”
They reunited on After the Final Rose for some closure, and all seemed to be done in their story. Well…
Gabby mocks Clayton’s dancing
After winning The Traitors in early 2025, Windey, who came out in 2023 and is now married to Robby Hoffman, started gaining massive popularity on social media. She continued riding the wave of her newfound success and appeared on the Las Culturistas podcast that April. During the interview, she kept up her no-nonsense, no filter attitude, including when she spoke about Echard.
“Have you seen his dancing videos?” she asked, referring to Echard’s recent social media clips of the dance lessons he’d been taking. “Oh my God. They will make you run. I’m gonna send you one, and you wish you didn’t have eyes.” She also mocked his physical appearance, calling him “toe-looking.”
Clayton responds to Gabby’s interview
Echard responded in an Instagram video where he accused his ex of “bullying.” As he explained, “You’re attacking me for my physical appearance. You’re attacking me for a passion that I love that’s changed my life. It’s unnecessary, and it’s not funny. Videos you make where you comment … you have such a large platform, and you’re setting a really bad example. It’s just disheartening to see. You have this platform, and this is how you choose to use it.”
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Although he was hesitant about even bringing up the situation, Echard said he was working on not being such a “people pleaser” and always worrying about upsetting someone. He urged Windey to “do better,” especially because of the large platform she now had.
The Bachelor alum also anticipated possible backlash from critics who might say that Windey was just joking. “It’s not a joke,” he insisted. “I haven’t talked to you in three years, and you continue to take shots at me, and it’s just unnecessary.”
Gabby defends making fun of Clayton
Echard’s video calling out Windey went viral, and she responded in a TikTok of her own.
@gabbywindeyAnd you dont even need to run to his DMs or comments hes not worth it fr♬ original sound – Gabby
“That’s rich. That’s rich coming from a man who exploited my sexual life on TV without me knowing,” she said. “You were ‘intimate with the both of us,’ you said, on national TV in front of millions without having a conversation with me or another woman first, so you humiliated us in front of each other and in front of everybody watching the TV. Sure, people can infer, but nothing has been said so explicitly, and those kind of details should come from a woman. Oh, I’m a mean girl? As as straight white man, maybe you should do better with your power.”
Clayton responds to Gabby … again
The back and forth continued with Echard posting another clip in direct response to his ex’s TikTok.
“It’s disappointing to see that this is the route you’re choosing to go, essentially saying it’s justified to make fun of someone’s physical appearance, to attack a passion of theirs that’s changed their life, if they’ve hurt you in the past,” Echard began. “So you’re teaching your audience to be vengeful, to not forgive, and I don’t agree with that, okay?
He assured Windey that she had “every right to be upset with” him for what happened on the show but pointed out that he’d tried hard to “take accountability,” even reaching out to her months after the finale. While sharing this part of the story, he include screenshots of apology DMs he’d sent Windey in May 2022, which she didn’t respond to.
@clayton.echardIn response to Gabby’s TikTok…. Attacking someone’s looks and their hobbies is never ok, especially years later after they’ve taken accountability & apologized multiple times for their actions. But if you want to continue to be vengeful, you will. Just know that I won’t stand for it anymore.♬ original sound – Clayton Echard
There was also a message from September 2023 where Echard noted that he’d spoken to Recchia and she told him to reach out. He asked Windey if she wanted to hop on a phone call, and she responded letting him know that she was too busy. He explained that he had an idea he wanted to “run by” her and asked if she was busy on two upcoming weekend dates.
“Ah I am!!” Windey responded. “So sorry!!” Echard responded by thanking Windey for letting him know and telling her not to hesitate to reach out if she was ever in Scottsdale, Arizona. He also congratulated her on her relationship with Hoffman.
In his new video, Echard stood by his right to “be upset” with Windey. “Imagine I made fun of your physical looks, imagine I made fun of your passions? There would be an uprising online, as there should be, and that’s why this is happening,” he continued. “It’s not okay, Gabby, that you can just attack me. It’s bullying and I wish we could’ve just done this in private.”
He reflected on their Bachelor experience and insisted that he had no desire to air out her private business on the show. “You were a lead once, Gabby, so you know. So stop with this nonsense,” he said. “You know I couldn’t have an off-camera conversation. You know I couldn’t orchestrate that as a lead. Everything, when we signed the contract, said we had to be on-camera, minus fantasy suites.”
In conclusion, Echard said, “You’re not going to agree with everything I did, that’s fine. But it does not give you the right, because of what I did three and a half years ago, for you to attack my physical appearance and what I’m doing today. It’s wrong, Gabby. Do better.”
