American television host

Elisabeth DelPadre H*elbeck (née:Filarski; born May 28, 1977) is an American retired television personality and talk show host. H*elbeck first rose to prominence in 2001 as a contestant on the second season of the American version of Survivor, where she finished in fourth place. She married NFL quarterback Tim H*elbeck the following year.

From 2003 to 2013, H*elbeck appeared as a co-host on the ABC daytime talk show The View, where she became known for her conservative views on sociopolitical issues. With her co-hosts Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd, and Barbara Walters, she was awarded the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host during the 36th Daytime Emmy Awards in 2009. Thereafter, H*elbeck was a co-host on Fox & Friends from 2013 to 2015, and has since retired from television.

Contents

• 1 Early life and education
• 2 Television career
  • 2.1 2001–02: Survivor: The Australian Outback
  • 2.2 2003–13: The View
  • 2.3 2013–15: Fox & Friends
• 3 Personal life
  • 3.1 Celiac disease
• 4 Published works
• 5 See also
• 6 References

Early life and education

Elisabeth was born on May 28, 1977, in Cranston, Rhode Island. She is the daughter of architect Kenneth Filarski and school teacher and lawyer Elizabeth DelPadre. Her brother, Kenneth, Jr., is a practicing attorney. Their father is of Polish descent and their mother is of Italian ancestry.

H*elbeck was raised Catholic and attended St. Mary School in Cranston, followed by St. Mary Academy:– Bay View in East Providence, 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, H*elbeck graduated with a BFA in 1999. H*elbeck 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.

Television career

2001–02: Survivor: The Australian Outback

In 2001, H*elbeck (then Elisabeth Filarski) was cast in Survivor: The Australian Outback, and was originally a member of the Kucha tribe. She avoided being voted out at the first Tribal Council which her tribe attended. She then went on a winning streak but lost once again in episode five, where they voted out Kimmi. In episode six, H*elbeck's tribemate Michael Skupin fell into the campfire and had to be medically evacuated, therefore sending the Kucha and Ogakor tribes into the merge with five members each. When the merge came, she lasted almost nine hours in the first individual immunity challenge in which contestants had to stand on a perch in the water for as long as possible. When the first vote came, her tribemate Jeff was voted out due to previous votes cast against him. This led to another Kucha member Alicia being voted out and sent to the jury. Filarski was next on the block when the biggest threat in her original tribe, Nick, won immunity, but she swayed the votes of Ogakor members Tina Wesson and Colby Donaldson her way, and had Jerri Manthey voted out. At the final five, her closest ally throughout the entire game, Rodger Bingham, was voted out. She then became the sole remaining Kucha member and was voted out, coming in fourth overall. She was one of four votes for Tina to win. She was one of two people who were asked to return for Survivor: All-Stars and declined, the other being Colleen Haskell of Survivor: Borneo.

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

2003–13: The View

Elizabeth H*elbeck (second from left), Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg pose for a photograph with U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Michelle Howard during Fleet Week, New York 2010.

Although H*elbeck previously saw herself as a "behind the scenes" kind of person and not interested in a career in television, or playing pundit, her agent was eager to showcase her compe*ive client and she auditioned for The View in 2003. H*elbeck 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. She became a permanent co-host on November 24, 2003.

H*elbeck typically represented the conservative position on The View.

On August 2, 2006, H*elbeck 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. H*elbeck 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." H*elbeck 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 air, moderator Barbara Walters advised H*elbeck to calm down after she became emotional about the topic. When the live show went to a commercial break, H*elbeck ripped up her cue cards and stormed off the set. In an expletive-laden off-air conversation picked up on a live mic, H*elbeck explained to co-host Joy Behar that she did not appreciate being reprimanded on live TV by Walters for being p*ionate about the topic. She threatened to quit, but producer Bill Geddie convinced her to come back to the set. As the show came back from the break, Walters and Elizabeth appeared together on a couch, awkwardly making up for the situation. H*elbeck hugged Walters, sat on her lap, and ended up backing off from her threat to quit.

On May 23, 2007, H*elbeck 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 (including Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly) for her question and she (O'Donnell) complained about H*elbeck's unwillingness to defend O'Donnell's statements in the controversy that followed. H*elbeck 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.

The View's panel (L–R: Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd, and H*elbeck) interview United States President Barack Obama on July 29, 2010

In August 2009, H*elbeck, along with her co-hosts Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd, and Barbara Walters, won the 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 was 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.

On March 8, 2013, there were widespread media reports that H*elbeck was going to be fired from the show, effective at the end of the season, allegedly because of market research polling that showed viewers thought her views were too conservative. However, on the March 11, 2013, episode of the show, Walters said that the rumors were "particularly false" and that there are "no plans for Elisabeth to leave this show".

On July 9, 2013, ABC confirmed that H*elbeck would be leaving The View to join Fox & Friends. Her last day on The View was July 10, 2013.

2013–15: Fox & Friends

On September 16, 2013, H*elbeck joined the Fox News morning show, Fox & Friends as a co-host, replacing Gretchen Carlson. By that November, the show's ratings had grown by 9 percent, and increased 10 percent in viewership among people ages 25–54. In November 2015, H*elbeck announced that she would retire and leave Fox & Friends at the end of the year in order to spend more time with her family, saying she wanted to "give them the best of me, not the rest of me". Her final day in Fox News was on December 22, 2015.

Personal life

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

H*elbeck is a Christian, and in August 2014, she condemned the persecution of Christians in Iraq, as well as the removal of Bibles from hotel rooms in the United States. Despite her parents being liberals, H*elbeck is a Republican. She was a speaker at the Republican National Conventions in both 2004 and 2008. On October 26, 2008, H*elbeck appeared at Republican rallies in Florida, introducing vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

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

Celiac disease

H*elbeck stated she 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 M*achusetts alleging that her book was plagiarized from a self-published book by Susan H*et. H*elbeck 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. In 2011, H*elbeck introduced NoGii, her line of gluten-free nutritional products for children and adults.

Published works

• The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide (2008) ISBN:9781599951898
• Deliciously G-Free: Food So Flavorful They'll Never Believe It's Gluten-Free (2012) ISBN:9780345529381
• Point of View: A Fresh Look at Work, Faith, and Freedom (2019, WaterBrook; ISBN:978-0525652762)

See also

• List of people diagnosed with celiac disease

References