This story originally appeared on People.
Kenya Moore is living her best life.
For their first Thanksgiving together, Moore and her husband Marc Daly are getting tropical. The couple, who tied the knot in June, jetted off to Barbados this week.
Moore and Daly met through mutual friend (and fellow Bravolebrity) Chef Roblé Ali last year, though they didn’t start dating until December. On June 10, she wed the businessman in a romantic sunset ceremony on the beach in St. Lucia.
“I’ve never experienced a first date like this before,” Moore told PEOPLE exclusively. “You know when you meet people and you like them or have good chemistry with them, but you don’t feel like the world has changed? I felt like the earth moved after our first date.”
“I probably would have married him in 30 days — the feeling was that strong,” she said. “But we wanted to wait and get to know each other and make sure it wasn’t an infatuation. We needed to make sure it was actually real.”
Moore initially kept Daly’s identity secret after announcing their nuptials, explaining to PEOPLE that he “didn’t sign up for this world.”
“Every time someone has been associated with me, they attack that person — immediately going after them, trying to bring them down and saying crazy things,” she said. “They tear people apart. And so for [Marc], he was like, ‘This is about me and you — it’s not about me or you.’ He just wanted it to be about our pure love and not about him.”
“That’s why I fell in love with him,” she continued. “For him, it’s about being my protector and my best friend — not being someone that stands next to me, but someone who supports me and is okay with being behind me sometimes. He doesn’t want my money, he doesn’t want my fame, he doesn’t want my success — he just wants my heart, and he has it.”
On Sunday, Moore dedicated a heartfelt Instagram post to her husband and their future together.
“Life teaches many lessons, has many twists and turns, but always seems to present opportunities for a better today and tomorrow,” she captioned a selfie of the two. “I have looked for the wrong things in the past relationships. I have been wronged, and been hurt by others, but I’ve also doled out my share of pain and mistreatment. These all stemmed from not having deep love and relationships. Now, I have found love and want to start it with a clean slate. I want to put my past mistakes behind me and move forward positively with my new life.”
“No more excuses, or negativity. I now have the chance to live not only for myself, but for my own family. The stakes are the greatest they’ve ever been in my life. Today is better than yesterday, and tomorrow will be better than today.
“Have a blessed Sunday,” she added. “#love #life #newbeginnings #familyfirst #ThatsMrsDalyToYou.”
The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs Sundays (8 p.m. ET) on Bravo.
