Elisabeth Hasselbeck

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Snapshot

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Five Fun Facts

1. In 1997, Elisabeth and Tim Hasselbeck had their first date, which lasted 14 hours: they had dinner at a local Italian restaurant, shared a chaste first kiss – on the 50-yard line of their college's (Boston College) football stadium – and, after finding themselves inadvertently locked out of the dorm, grabbed breakfast at IHOP."I always thought it was fate," Hasselbeck told the Boston Globe in 2004.
2. Elisabeth Hasselbeck's luxury item on Survivor: The Australian Outback? A self-made "immunity" headdress she wore for good luck.
3. In 2006, Elisabeth Hasselbeck fumed on-air about an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where a 30-year-old New Yorker – named Elizabeth Hassenbeck – is raped and murdered. "I think it's socially irresponsible and gruesomely suggestive," she said on The View.
4. In September 2007, singer Barry Manilow pulled out of an appearance on The View after learning he would be interviewed by the conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck. "I've always been a big supporter of the show," he wrote on his Web site, "but I cannot compromise my beliefs."
5. Elisabeth Hasslebeck's quirkiest pastime? Creating elaborate sidewalk-chalk drawings at local playgrounds.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Biography

early 1990s

The Softball Swan

Elisabeth Filarski – the elder child of Ken, an architect, and Elizabeth (with a "z"), a lawyer – enjoys an athletic childhood in Cranston, R.I. She attends St. Mary's Academy Bay-View, where she's a member of a state-champion softball team. "The years growing up were so important to me," she tells the Providence Journal in 2004. "The support I've always had from my parents is amazing. They've always let me go beyond the norm."

late 1990s

College Years with Tim Hasselbeck

Filarski studies art at Boston College, where she captains the Division-1 softball team to two Big East championships and meets the college's charismatic quarterback, Tim Hasselbeck (left). In the summer of 1997, Hasselbeck asks Filarski out for the first time. Of their romance, Filarksi tells the Boston Globe in 2004, "I always thought it was fate." In 1999, she earns a Masters of Fine Arts with a focus on large-scale paintings and industrial design.

2001

Survivor's Sweetheart

Filarski – now working as a shoe designer for Puma – attempts to outwit, outplay and outlast 15 other contestants in Survivor: The Australian Outback (the second season of the wildly successful reality show). She auditions as "a whimisical thing," her younger brother Ken tells PEOPLE in 2001. "She told people she was doing it as a joke." But the fierce – if perky – competitor makes it all the way to the final four. But when she returns to civilization, she's diagnosed with celiac disease, a serious immune-system reaction to gluten.

Read More on Elisabeth Hasselbeck's Life

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Special Feature