Gabby Windey Praises “Traitors” Season 3 Costar Chrishell Stause as a 'Trailblazer for Me in the Queer Space' (Exclusive)

The former Bachelorette and Flamin' Hot partner tells PEOPLE she admires the Netflix star for also publicly dating men before coming out "no holds barred"

• Gabby Windey appeared on Clayton Echard’s season of The Bachelor before becoming the franchise’s first co-Bachelorette with Rachel Recchia in 2022

• The Long Winded podcast host will compete on the upcoming third season of The Traitors alongside Wells Adams, Nikki Garcia, “Boston” Rob Marino, Chrishell Stause and more

• Windey, whose been dating comedian Robby Hoffman since May 2023, tells PEOPLE she went into filming the Peacock competition series without a plan, but she “tried to stay true to myself”

The objective of The Traitors may be to be the last one standing at the end of the game and take home part of the $250,000 prize, but for Gabby Windey, competing on the upcoming third season of the Peacock series also allowed her to meet someone she admired.

“I was so excited to meet Chrishell because she's kind of a trailblazer for me in the queer space,” Windey, 33, tells PEOPLE of Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause. “She was publicly dating men before and then just came out, no holds barred, with G, and the public response has been so amazing. So I was excited to meet her. She's incredible.”

Related: Why Gabby Windey Says She Would Do The Bachelorette 'Again and Again' If She Was Single (Exclusive)

Windey, who partnered Flamin’ Hot to encourage Flamin’ Hot Cheetos fans to try one of the brand’s 25+ other spicy “sidechips,” got engaged to Erich Schwer on the finale of her season of The Bachelorette that aired in September 2022. The two announced in early November of that year that they’d called it quits, and in August 2023, Windey shared that she’d been dating a woman, comedian Robby Hoffman.

Similarly, Stause, 43, confirmed her relationship with non-binary musician G Flip in May 2022 after divorcing actor Justin Hartley.

Windey told PEOPLE in October 2023 that Stause DMed her shortly after she went public with Hoffman, 34. "She was so nice [and] invited me to G Flip's album release, but unfortunately we couldn't go, and we have the same hairstylist,” the Dancing with the Stars alum said. “I know she's really great, and it's been really great."

Along with fangirling over Stause when The Traitors season 3 filmed in Scotland earlier this year, Windey says castmate Nikki Garcia became her “big sister.”

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“She's made such a career out of wrestling and been in the industry forever, and she was so great,” Windey says of Garcia, 40. “All of the Housewives were really fun to meet. They're such powerhouses, not afraid to argue, so I learned a couple things from them. But really, everyone had such a great personality. They were really fun to just interact with and work with.”

Housewives Chanel Ayan, Dolores Catania, Robyn Dixon and Dorinda Medley will all be competing on The Traitors season 3, joined by fellow Bravo stars Ciara Miller from Summer House and Tom Sandoval from Vanderpump Rules. The cast also includes Bachelor in Paradise bartender Wells Adams, Bob the Drag Queen (RuPaul's Drag Race), Jeremy Collins (Survivor), Dylan Efron (Down to Earth with Zac Efron), Bob Harper (The Biggest Loser), Britney Haynes (Big Brother), "Boston" Rob Mariano (Survivor, The Amazing Race, Deal or No Deal Island), Lord Ivar Mountbatten (British royal), Danielle Reyes (Big Brother), Tony Vlachos (Survivor) and Carolyn Wiger (Survivor).

Windey admits she didn’t go into The Traitors with a plan of how to navigate the competition.

“My plan is always to have no plan,” she says. “I just have to go in and figure things out for myself. I think I'm a pretty perceptive person and I like to come to my own conclusions without any bias. So, I came in eyes wide and tried to stay true to myself. I think I have a pretty good intuition being a woman and being a nurse, so I think that helped me out a lot.”

Related: Colton Underwood Is 'Extremely Proud' of Gabby Windey for Coming Out: I Know What She's 'Going Through'

The Long Winded podcast host also learned she has a pretty good poker face.

“I think I'm pretty hard to read, which is something I'm just learning with Robby,” Windey says. “She's telling me all the time. I had no idea, but I think it helped me with Traitors, because I don't even know what I'm thinking half the time, so it's hard for other people to too. I'm a Capricorn, I think that's a Capricorn trait.”

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Flamin' Hot fans can enter to win exclusive “Burner Phones,” which come with a one-year supply of Flamin' Hot snacks delivered straight to winners’ doors for one year until Nov. 8, via Windey’s Instagram or on FlaminHotUniversity.com.

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