She’s back and doing just fine! Elisabeth Hasselbeck has been through the ringer in the past few months. The Fox & Friends co-host underwent emergency surgery to remove a tumor on her abdomen last month, and returned to the morning show on Friday, Nov. 14. In her first interview since the successful surgery, Hasselbeck, 37, opened up to Us Weekly about the procedure, her family, and how it has changed her life.
“I’m recovering,” the TV personality tells Us. “I definitely feel better every day. I couldn’t be more thankful and mindful of the gift that is a clean bill of health and a benign report.”
Hasselbeck told Fox & Friends viewers that the tumor was non-cancerous, but that doesn’t mean her situation wasn’t urgent. The tumor was found during a routine visit and doctors immediately told Hasselbeck that she had to have emergency surgery within the month to have it removed.
Throughout the entire ordeal, all the mom of three could think about was her children. While her oldest daughter Grace, 9, (she’s also mom to sons Taylor, 7, and Isaiah, 5) has a pretty good idea of what was going on, Hasselbeck made a point of only telling her kids what she thought they could handle.
“I think each of your kids chew, or need or chew the amount they can chew and digest, so we give them the truth in the amount they can digest,” she continued. “So the baby has it pureed and the little toddler has it cut up, and eventually when they’re teens they can cut it up themselves. They were able to process the truth much better, I think, than a lie. So I don’t know what works for other families, I just know what works for ours, and I think that I tend to find it much more easy and energy-efficient to just deliver the truth.”
Fortunately, Hasselbeck has a helpful partner in her husband Tim. The college sweethearts got married in 2002, and have been going strong ever since.
“He’s the leader at home,” she said of the former football player-turned-ESPN analyst, 36. “You know he was a quarterback on field, he’s a quarterback at our house, and I like it that way. Our house works best because of his leadership, and I can be bold, but he’s our general.”
Looking back on the experience, Hasselbeck took home some major life lessons.
“I was in such pain before the surgery that I think the toughest part was just pondering my mission before me — Am I a mom of three little elementary school kids, who is waiting to feel better and prepare for another surgery and treatment, or am I a mom of three kids who’s on a path to recovery starting now?” she explained. “I’m not rushing through my days or rushing through a moment, and I don’t think I was before, but I’m truly enjoying every second, and I just think we’ve learned to slow down a lot, and that was our mission as a family this year, just slow down and huddle up and spend more time with each other at home and not sign up for a million different activities.”
