Just weeks after announcing her departure from "The Real Housewives of Potomac," Candiace Dillard Bassett is embarking on a whole new journey: motherhood.
The reality star just revealed that she's “about 13 weeks” pregnant with her first child during an exclusive interview with Entertainment Tonight.
The 37-year-old is already a stepmother to her husband Chris Bassett's three children from prior relationships, but this is the couple's first child together.
Currently in her second trimester, Dillard Bassett gave an update on how her pregnancy is progressing so far.
“It’s been weird, but also really wonderful, I think, to keep it kind of to ourselves to this point,” she told ET. “Our immediate family knows, my mom -- I told my mom on her birthday in February -- my dad knows, (Chris’) parents know, my siblings know and that is my core, best friend group, but outside of that it’s just been, like, kind of quietly just growing a bun.”
On "The Real Housewives of Potomac," Dillard Bassett was open about her desire to have a child of her own one day. The series even chronicled some of her fertility counseling sessions and followed her journey to freeze her embryos.
“I think we were both kind of content to have (the embryos) just sit there until my ‘cut-off date,’” the singer said. Her husband, 46, had previously said he— wanted her to be pregnant by the time he turns 50.
“But then I got the itch,” she continued. “I always wondered, like, how would I know when I was ready? And I always felt like a part of my anxiety was that I wasn’t sure that I would know, and when I knew, it was undeniable.”
The reality star recalled realizing that she “was never going to be 100 percent ready” and decided to "trust the process and trust my doctors and stop being afraid and just do it."
A few weeks after undergoing an implantation procedure in January, Dillard Bassett got some exciting news.
“We waited and waited and waited all this time, so to finally hear that, after those two weeks, the process has worked after a year of doing the shots. ... I did two rounds of egg retrieval. To do the shots in your stomach, I had to do the shots in my bum every day — which was not always fun — and to finally have it all pay off was amazing," she said.
The couple doesn't know the baby's gender yet but plans to find out. They're also not ruling out having another baby in the future since they have one more frozen embryo.
“I’m just kind of taking it day by day. Thankfully, I feel really blessed so far to be just about in my second trimester and I haven’t really been super sick. I haven’t had, like, super crazy pregnancy symptoms, so that’s helpful in thinking about doing it again," she said. "But also, it’s like, could we just find a wonderful surrogate for the second one? That is on the table, that’s an option that some women have the luxury of entertaining. So, we’ll see. Let me pop one out and see.”
Since he has three other children, Bassett is familiar with the pregnancy process and said he's eager to support his wife.
“That’s something I gotta keep in mind as we go through this process, right? That I’ve done this three times already; this is her first time,” he said. “I’ve gotta make sure for me that I stay engaged, ‘cause I’ve gotta be super supportive for her and she’s gonna need that all the way through. So, that’s kind of what I’m looking forward to, just to share it and experience it with Candiace and just see where it goes.”
Looking ahead, Dillard Bassett said she's excited to be a supportive mom and cheer on her child in "whatever they want to do." Of course, she also has a few fears and joked that she's a bit nervous about "math homework."
For now, she's just most excited to meet her little one.
"I always have these dreams — I have dreams, like, every other night of just me holding the baby, but ... all you see is the head. So I’m excited to just hold them," she said.