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

Candiace Dillard Bassett doesn't regret setting down her champagne flute.

The Real Housewives of Potomac alum, 37, tells PEOPLE exclusively that she is "so happy" she left the Bravo reality series after season 8 wrapped to focus on her pregnancy. Candiace and husband Chris Bassett welcomed 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 of RHOP before 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."

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 of RHOP, 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."

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 of Potomac and 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."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Shortly after announcing her pregnancy in April, Candiace told Entertainment Tonight that her baby-on-the-way was "95 percent" of the reason why she bowed out of RHOP.

"I was really adamant about creating a space not just for the baby, but for me — for us — for this time in our lives," she said at the time. "I wanted the space around us and around our child to feel peaceful and to feel free and to feel positive, without any added pressure, good, bad or indifferent from the show."

"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.

Candiace revealed the news of her baby boy's Oct. 3 arrival exclusively to PEOPLE earlier this month, and shared sweet photos of her new family of three.

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.”