Love is a many-splendored thing, especially when you’re gawking at it from the outside. In this column, we’ll be examining the celebrity couples that give us hope for our own romantic futures, and trying to learn what we can from their well-documented bonds.
If you’ve read this column before, it should come as no surprise to you that I’m obsessed with Gabby Windey, a former Bachelor contestant who clawed her way to the title of co-runner-up (on Clayton’s season, though, ugh) before starring on The Bachelorette Season 19, only to come out on The View. Windey’s revelation lent futher credence to my theory that all the cool reality-TV girlies are queer now, but more than that, I couldn’t help being rabidly curious about who the woman she was “in a committed relationship with” was.
Well, when I found out it was comedian Robby Hoffman, whose podcast Too Far my own partner is obsessed with…reader, I rejoiced. High-femme blonde reality star dating a masc, ex-Hasidic lesbian comedy writer? It’s like a Woody Allen movie, if his movies were in any way watchable anymore!
As Windey’s star has continued to rise thanks to her role on The Traitors, I’ve loved watching her and Hoffman make their way into the public eye as a couple. If I may posit something somewhat bold, I think they’re sort of the Pete and Ariana of the 2025-era queer world (remember that relationship? Back when Pete Davidson had tattoos and Wicked was but a twinkle in Ariana Grande’s eye?): Hoffman was on hand to support Windey when she walked in Susan Alexandra and Rachel Antonoff’s NYFW show last fall, and it appears they both believe in the power of retail therapy, with Windey telling Page Six: “[Hoffman] got this really amazing pair of pants the other day … I was like, ‘Oh my God, I love,’ and she’s like, ‘Thanks for being so supportive.’ We know what each other likes and what’s worth the purchase.” Honestly, if you can’t shop together, why even be gay?
Hoffman and Windey apparently moved in together in August, and I can’t help being particularly moved by the story of Hoffman sending Windey off to film The Traitors with a Shema prayer card. (Windey told Interview that she read the prayer “every night just to feel connected to [Hoffman] and to obviously pray for success.” Normalize the recitation of Jewish liturgy on reality television!)
I, personally, would very much like to see this couple enter the reality world together on an upcoming season of The Ultimatum: Queer Love, but I respect that they might just be focusing on being together off-camera right now. “She has a beautiful country home in Lake Arrowhead and they get a lot of snow,” Windey recently said of Hoffman. “So we’re planning to hibernate in the cabin and watch the snow fall.” Mazel tov and happy Valentine’s Day to those two snow-gazing lovebirds!
