Clayton Echard accused Gabby Windey, a runner up on his season of The Bachelor, of bullying after she criticized his dancing videos on the Las Culturistas podcast with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
Gabby Windey Marries Robby Hoffman In Vegas Ceremony
Clayton Echard is accusing Gabby Windey of not just being a traitor, but a bully.
The lead of The Bachelor season 26 called out Gabby, a runner up on his season, for bullying after she called him a "toe looking ass" on the Las Culturistas podcast, where she said his dancing videos would make a person "run" and "wish you didn't have eyes."
"Bullying people for their physical looks and their passions is completely unnecessary and behavior like this needs to be called out, so that hopefully it isn’t continued," the former college football player wrote in the caption of an April 6 Instagram post. "You have a massive platform and influence, Gabby. So, I hope you can reflect upon this moment and be better going forward."
Clayton shared a clip of Gabby, 34, who recently married comedian Robby Hoffman, speaking on the April 3 podcast episode before moving on to his own video, where he spoke further on his thoughts.
"I debated responding to this because sometimes I feel it's unnecessary, but this is the second interview I've been sent in the last couple weeks from Gabby making comments about me online," the 31-year-old said. "I used to be a people pleaser and didn't want to upset anybody, so I'd keep my mouth shut, but I don't believe in doing that anymore."
"Gabby, what you're doing is bullying," he said. "There's no other way around it. 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."
He also brought up her large online following after appearing on not only The Bachelor and The Bachelorette but also Dancing with the Stars and The Traitors.
"You have such a large platform and you're setting a really bad example," he noted, "which is just disheartening."
Clayton went on to share how much his dancing has meant to him after The Bachelor, explaining that it helped him to develop "self-confidence" and "self-love" even if he isn't the most skilled.
"I'm truly so grateful to have found something that I get to work on myself every day and challenge myself," he said. "I'm not the greatest at it and I'm aware of that, I'm not delusional, but it's me versus me every single day I get in that studio."
"It's movement therapy," he continued. "It's allowed me to release a lot of my anger and frustrations."
Clayton also shared how he hopes that his own dancing journey will continue to inspire others to try new things.
"Dance has done so much for me and the cool thing is, is that not only has it brought me self-love, and self-confidence, but it's inspired other people to get the courage to step out of their comfort zones and try something new," he explained. "I know I'm not the next big dancer; I'm just doing what's fun, but I have to stand up for myself, and that's why I'm making this video."
He added in his message to Gabby, “I don't want people to be scared to try something new because bullying online, like what you're doing, impacts them in a way which stops them."
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