Welcome back! Elisabeth Hasselbeck returned to Fox and Friends on Friday, Nov. 14, where she revealed the reason behind her month-long absence.
Hasselbeck, 37, told viewers on the conservative morning news program that she had quite the health scare when a tumor was found in her abdomen. Doctors, initially fearing that it could be cancerous, told the former View co-host that it had to be removed by month's end. Later, the tumor was determined as not cancerous.
"I had a scary week when we didn’t know what the results were," Hasselbeck said. "But I'm okay…everything came back okay. Surgery’s not fun, but it is necessary to find out if you have something really terrible."
The TV personality then expressed gratitude to those who supported her before and after the procedure. "I could not be more thankful for my family and my friends who've stuck by me with incredible support," she said. "And really, starting from the top down here, [Fox News CEO] Mr. [Roger] Ailes, and this entire Fox family treated me like family the entire way… I'm certainly not a person who takes a lot for granted, but I certainly don't take it for granted now."
Hasselbeck got emotional as she discussed the ordeal with her co-host Steve Doocy, even holding his hand as she shared her remarks. "So many people I know have stared down the barrel of that cancer gun, and looked at it when they have gotten bad news," she said, "and have done remarkable things, courageously, to fight it." Watch clips of Elisabeth's emotional return.
To mark her return as well as Hasselbeck's self-proclaimed "clear and clean bill of health," Doocy and Eric Bolling (who was in for Brian Kilmeade) then caked her with a confection which Doocy said was from Cake Boss.
"Thank you Cake Boss!" Hasselbeck quipped, while Bolling sniped: "Wherever you are." (As reported Thursday, Nov. 13, TLC pastry wiz Buddy Valastro was arrested for drunk driving.)
