‘Bachelorette’ alum Gabby Windey breaks back in freak vibration plate accident

By Page Six | Created at 2026-10-07 15:43:51 | Updated at 2026-10-09 02:23:03 1 day ago

Gabby Windey broke her back in a freak accident with a vibration plate.

The former “Bachelorette” revealed the injury to her Instagram followers recently, writing, “I’ve broken my back due to a speedy vibration. And I’ve barely lived to tell the story.”

The reality star, 35, poked fun at her “broke back, no mountain” while sharing multiple hospital selfies.

Gabby Windey announced Friday that she had a “broke back, no mountain” after using a vibration plate. gabby.windey/Instagram
“I’ve barely lived to tell the story,” the “Bachelorette” alum told her Instagram followers of the freak accident. gabby.windey/Instagram

She described the damage in a Substack essay, noting that she is now in “the community of bad backs” after using her vibration plate at “level 30, supersonic speed.”

A vibration plate, notably, is “a fitness device,” per WebMD, that “use[s] whole-body vibration to stimulate muscles” and “may also help improve strength, flexibility … and circulation.”

While using it, the “Traitors” alum’s “vertebrae turn[ed] crooked and rub[bed] against each other” until “a small piece [broke] off from friction.”

She detailed the experience in a Substack essay. gabby.windey/Instagram
The reality star’s “vertebrae turn[ed] crooked and rub[bed] against each other” until “a small piece [broke] off from friction.” gabby.windey/Instagram

Windey wrote, “It was [from] too fast vibrations I guess, and too many vibrations maybe, and too much pressure to shake. And it broke. Broke right off, like your ex-boyfriend’s bumper. Well, technically, it cracked.”

The “Love Overboard” host noted that she is experiencing side effects from her accident, including “tormenting” paresthesia — which Cleveland Clinic defines as a “feeling of tingling, numbness or ‘pins and needles.'”

She explained, “It’s the strangest feeling the tickling nerve. It’s ineffable. … This is the greatest sense of condemnation; of persecution, I’ll ever feel. And I do wish it on my worst enemy If only they hadn’t wished it on me first.”

The “Traitors” alum (pictured above in April) had been using the device at “supersonic speed.” Instagram/@gabby.windey
The Bachelor Nation member (pictured above in 2022) is being “torment[ed]” by a “pins and needles” feeling in her recovery. ABC via Getty Images

Denying her injury was “a trite and colloquial miss-work excuse,” she insisted, “It is debilitating in its affliction and indignant in its movement. And mind you, reader, it is an extremely acceptable reason to call out of work.”

Windey went on to blame “beauty standard[s]” and “self-love and care” for the accident, quipping, “One must vibrate until one’s vertebrae chops off. And so on.”

The former nurse’s wife, Robby Hoffman, commented on Windey’s announcement, “Brilliant read so proud of you baby.”

Windey’s wife, Robby Hoffman, praised the “Dancing With the Stars” alum’s “brilliant” essay in an Instagram comment. gabby.windey/Instagram
The pair have been married since 2025. gabby.windey/Instagram

The couple has been together since 2023, one year after Windey ended her engagement to Season 19 “Bachelorette” winner Erich Schwer.

The “Dancing With the Stars” alum revealed in March 2025 that she had secretly married Hoffman, 36, in Las Vegas three months prior.

The couple eloped during the Los Angeles wildfires, then legally wed in a Beverly Hills courthouse in April 2025.

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