Elisabeth Hasselbeck ( Filarski; born May 28, 1977) is an American television talk show host and television personality. She is best known as a contestant on Survivor: The Australian Outback (2001), a co-host on the daytime talk show The View, and is a contributor to the ABC morning broadcast Good Morning America. In 2009, she and her four co-hosts on The View won the 36th Annual Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host.

Early life

Elisabeth DelPadre Filarski was born in Cranston, Rhode Island. She is the daughter of Roman Catholic-school teacher and lawyer Elizabeth DelPadre and architect Kenneth Filarski. She has one brother, Kenneth, Jr., a lawyer and aspiring musician. She has Italian and Polish ancestry. As a child, she lived in Providence and Cranston, Rhode Island.

Hasselbeck was raised Roman Catholic and attended St. Mary School in Cranston, followed by St. Mary Academy - Bay View in Riverside, Rhode Island, where she graduated in 1995. She then attended Boston College, where she captained the women's softball team for two seasons, winning consecutive Big East championships. With a concentration on large scale paintings and industrial design, Hasselbeck graduated with a fine arts degree in 1999. Hasselbeck started working for Puma in 1998, while attending Boston College. After graduation, she worked for Puma shoes as a member of its design team before her television career.

Career

Survivor and early career

In 2001, Hasselbeck was cast in Survivor: The Australian Outback, and was originally a member of the Kucha tribe. She was the last remaining member of that tribe in the game before being voted off on Day 39 and finishing fourth overall. As her luxury item, she brought a self-made immunity headdress.

In 2001, Hasselbeck was a judge at the Miss Teen USA Pageant. From 2002 to 2003 she hosted the Style Network's The Look for Less where she helped find stylish clothes for bargain prices.

The View

In the past, Hasselbeck has been open about owing much of her career to the influence of her husband's family, particularly her father-in-law, Don Hasselbeck. Although Hasselbeck previously saw herself as a "behind the scenes" kind of person and not interested in career television, or playing pundit, her agent was eager to showcase her competitive client and she auditioned for The View. In 2003, Hasselbeck was one of a number of women who guest-hosted to replace outgoing The View co-host Lisa Ling, who left the show at the end of 2002.

Hasselbeck typically represents the conservative position on The View. However, Hasselbeck has said that she calls herself neither a conservative nor a liberal. Her parents had an independent political stance, never telling their children for whom they voted. She has stated that the term "conservative" does not define her as a person.

On October 26, 2008, Hasselbeck appeared at Republican rallies in Florida, introducing vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

In August 2009, Hasselbeck, along with her co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd, and Barbara Walters, won the 36th Annual Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. It follows over a decade of nominations for The View with no win. None of the co-hosts of the show were in Los Angeles to collect the award. For the first time, the show had not been nominated for both Outstanding Talk Show and Outstanding Talk Show Host.

Notable debates on The View

Hasselbeck has been involved in a number of heated debates on The View.

On August 2, 2006, Hasselbeck got into a heated debate in which she strongly opposed the Food and Drug Administration's plan to sell the "morning after pill" as an over-the-counter drug. Hasselbeck stated, "I believe that life begins at the moment of conception." She said the over-the-counter distribution of the pill should be banned even in cases of rape and incest, because "life still has value." Hasselbeck argued that advocates of the drug use the "rape or incest" exception as a "bait-and-switch" distraction from the goal of making it universally accessible. She argued that if the "rape or incest" exception were all advocates cared about, they would not support its over-the-counter status.

On May 23, 2007, Hasselbeck was involved in a heated on-air argument with co-host Rosie O'Donnell concerning the war in Iraq, which she supported and O'Donnell opposed. When O'Donnell asked, "655,000 Iraqi civilians dead. Who are the terrorists?" O'Donnell was criticized by conservative commentators for her question and she (O'Donnell) complained about Hasselbeck's unwillingness to defend O'Donnell's statements in the controversy that followed. Hasselbeck responded "defend your own insinuations", adding that she should not have to defend anyone else's words for them, especially when that person has a forum in which to present a defense.

On October 3, 2007, Hasselbeck and The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg were discussing Senator Hillary Clinton's proposal that the U.S. government provide a $5,000 savings bond for each child at birth. The conversation became heated when Hasselbeck stated it would lead to fewer abortions because women would want to keep the money.

Author

Hasselbeck has authored two books about gluten free foods, The G-Free Diet (2008) and a cookbook called Deliciously G Free (2012).

Personal life

On July 6, 2002, Hasselbeck married her college boyfriend, professional football quarterback Tim Hasselbeck. They have a daughter, Grace Elisabeth born in 2005, and two sons, Taylor Thomas born in 2007, and Isaiah Timothy born in 2009.

Hasselbeck is a supporter of breast cancer awareness initiatives in the form of an Internet-only PSA on breast cancer diagnosis.

Hasselbeck is living with celiac disease. She has written a book on the subject, The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide, which has appeared on several best-seller lists. On June 23, 2009, a lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Massachusetts alleging that her book was plagiarized from a self-published book by Susan Hasset. Hasselbeck released a statement calling the allegations baseless. The lawsuit was dismissed in November 2009 when the plaintiff's lawyer declined to pursue it, saying to the press that he believed some degree of plagiarism occurred, but it was not sufficient to justify monetary damages.

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