Candiace Dillard Bassett Happy She LeftRHOPto Focus on Pregnancy: ‘I Don’t Know If I Could Have Made It’ (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Candiace Dillard Bassett.Photo:Paul Morigi/Getty

Paul Morigi/Getty

Candiace Dillard Bassettdoesn’t regret setting down her champagne flute.

TheReal Housewives of Potomacalum, 37, tells PEOPLE exclusively that she is “so happy” sheleft the Bravo reality seriesafter season 8 wrapped to focus onher pregnancy. Candiace and husbandChris Bassettwelcomed their first child together,son Jett Maxwell Lee Bassett, last month.

The former reality says stepping away from the show — and the onscreen drama — allowed her to enjoy a more peaceful, easy-going pregnancy.

“I’m just so happy and content and satisfied with how soft my pregnancy was. It was leisurely and kind and beautiful and fun and just spoiled,” says Candiace, who appeared in six seasons ofRHOPbefore announcing her exit back in March.

“It was everything because I was literally doing whatever I wanted,” she continues. “Working out was so empowering, eating whatever the hell I wanted, demanding whatever food from my husband, and he was running to the store at midnight to get whatever I needed. It was amazing.”

Antwon Maxwell

Candiace says she was surprised to discover how much she “loved” being pregnant. “I thought I was going to hate it,” she admits. “And I was so afraid of being sick and not accepting the changes in my body and just all of the unknown things that you read about.”

When she reflects on how differently her pregnancy experience would have been had she gone ahead with filming for season 9 ofRHOP, Candiace insists, “I don’t know that I could have made it.”

“I know that I would not have had that [positive] experience if I had been going through my pregnancy, the meat of my pregnancy, which is the second trimester, which is the time where you’re not sick anymore [and] your energy kind of comes back,” she explains. “That’s the time that you can really thrive. And I would’ve not enjoyed it. I would’ve been robbed of what was the most beautiful experience of my life outside of [Jett] being born.”

Candiace tells PEOPLE she has absolutely no regrets about her decision to depart the Bravo franchise. “None whatsoever. Not one,” she says. “I’m not watching the show, just because so much is going on, but I hear people are loving it so I’m happy to hear it’s doing well.”

Candiace Dillard Bassett and Chris Bassett in ‘The Real Housewives of Potomac’.Paul Morigi/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

As for what she has taken away from her time on the show, she says it’s a sense of pride. “I’m a part of the legacy ofPotomacand no one can ever take that away from me,” she notes. “And it’s something I’m really proud of, that I was a part of building this incredible legacy.”

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“I was not confident that I could have that in the space that the show exists in, currently. It was kind of a no-brainer,” she added.

Describing her son as “just the cutest little thing,” she gushed, “Chris and I couldn’t be happier. It’s so cliché to say, but he’s brought such joy to our lives in ways I never would have been able to describe before. It’s pure love!”

She added: “I just look at him and envision all the adventures we’re going to have.”

source: people.com