Inside Elisabeth Hasselbeck's Relationship With Tim Hasselbeck
If you're looking for the living embodiment of Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract," Elisabeth Hasselbeck and her husband Tim would fit the bill, although they were still in grade school and years away from meeting each other when the song first invaded the airwaves in 1989. For openers, Elisabeth is more likely to publicly put her foot in her mouth, while Tim prefers to keep both of his feet on terra firma. She's the more outspoken and visible of the two, while he seems content to stay in the background. Yet, after being married for more than 20 years and becoming parents to three children, the couple has made their relationship work.
"We are nothing alike; we're so opposite, but I think it's good for our kids, too, to see resolve," said Elisabeth on "That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs." "We try to limit any conflict, we're too old for that now. But I think our kids need to see healthy relationships, and like, sacrificial love for one another. We try, everyone's trying to figure it out." They also share a common faith and a love for sports. Both have enjoyed extensive media careers, with Elisabeth best known for her exposure during one season of "Survivor" and paneling talk shows like "The View" and "Fox & Friends," with Tim working as an analyst on ESPN. Still, they seem to keep the Hasselbeck household running on all cylinders, with nary a public scandal to wreck their relationship.
Both were star athletes
Sports was always a big focus in the lives of Elisabeth and Tim Hasselbeck, long before they crossed paths. Elisabeth, then known by her maiden name of Filarski, had pursued athletics while growing up in Rhode Island, but was apprehensive about more competitive endeavors when her father suggested she try out for the Boston College women's softball team. "I'll never make the team," she recalled responding in her autobiography, "Point of View." "They have all their scholarship players already. They don't even know me. I'm not good enough." She tried out anyway and barely made the cut, but eventually became team captain.
Tim Hasselbeck had an easier time of it, having earned All-American status playing high school football in Norfolk, Massachusetts, and landing a spot on the Boston College Eagles' practice squad. Three seasons later in 1999, he was the Eagles' starting quarterback, guiding them through the regular season with an 8-4 win-loss tally. Despite that achievement, Tim probably felt like he played in the shadows cast by his family, namely his father (New England Patriots great Don Hasselbeck) and older brother Matt, who led the college team a few seasons earlier. "I pretty much went to Boston College because he was there," Tim said about his brother to The New York Times.
Someone else was there as well, a lady who'd change Tim's life forever.
Elisabeth and Tim first met in college
There's no doubt that Matt Hasselbeck had a huge influence on his younger brother Tim, especially when it came to football. They played together regularly when growing up, with Tim following his big brother to Boston College to play quarterback, a position Matt also played. But Matt can take credit for another life-changing moment in his brother's life, as he introduced to Tim to a softball-playing fine arts student named Elisabeth Filarski. Those first years together must have been pure bliss for them. "I think what's interesting is, when we dated...I don't think we ever had a fight," said Tim on "That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs." He added, "You know, dating, it was different when we were younger. A lot has changed, when we look back at pictures, I mean, I had hair!"
At the very least, their romance provided stability throughout college when Elisabeth's softball team won two conference titles, while Tim took the football Eagles to a bowl game and eventually became one of Boston College's best quarterbacks. During her senior year in 1999, Elisabeth even participated in the Boston Marathon. "I ran it as a bandit and I was the last person to cross the starting line," she said to Runner's World years later. "... A juggler, I think, finished before me." After the athletic phases of their lives ended, Elisabeth recalled, they still share a passion for fitness, even running together.
Football postponed their wedding
By 2002, Elisabeth Filarski and Tim Hasselbeck had long graduated and were engaged, but they both faced different futures. Elisabeth became a designer with Puma, hit reality TV stardom as a "Survivor" contestant, and was even called "America's New Sweetheart." Tim, however, sat out the 2000 season due to a groin injury that would hamper his NFL prospects. When the quarterback didn't get drafted in the league, he later worked as a carpenter and radio sports commentator in Boston after teams cut him in preseason. That still didn't stop their May 2002 wedding plans, until Tim received an interesting offer from the Philadelphia Eagles — he could suit up for the squad, but not before doing a stint with the Berlin Thunder of the fledgling NFL Europe league. This season would overlap with the couple's nuptials.
"Elisabeth was cool with that," said Tim to The Washington Post. "She didn't have too much of a fuss. She said: 'You don't want to regret this 10 years from now, so go for it now.'" Tim played sparingly with the Thunder, which won the league title that season. Philadelphia later brought him into the ranks, where he was in two games as a field goal holder before being released.
The good news was that in July, Elisabeth and Tim Hasselbeck were married at St. Mary's Church before 200 well-wishers in Cranston, Rhode Island, right by the grade school Elisabeth attended while growing up.
Elisabeth and Tim Hasselbeck tasted success as media pundits
Employment in showbiz is notoriously precarious, although Elisabeth and Tim Hasselbeck have enjoyed financial stability working in front of the camera. Elisabeth is far better known, first garnering exposure on "Survivor" in 2001, before parlaying that experience into hosting duties on Style Network's "The Look For Less" by the time she got married. But her profile vaulted into orbit in 2003 after she landed a co-hosting gig on the daytime program "The View," as the sole conservative arguing with her more leftist colleagues for 10 years. Spending a couple years in her next venture, "Fox & Friends," was far less confrontational than her previous job. "I almost had the same feeling in me as when I had a championship [softball] game, and I was up to bat and the pressure was on," Elisabeth told Pregnancy Magazine (via People) about her truculent time on "The View."
Meanwhile, husband Tim — after six years in the NFL playing for several teams — nabbed an ESPN sports analyst position in 2007 upon completing a summer "Broadcast Boot Camp" with the NFL. "That's kind of how it started," said Tim during the "On The Virg with Virgil Herring" podcast, "and then my desire to do it was a little bit sprung out of being on a team, you know, having a play not work out and then seeing it on TV and then somebody saying why it didn't work out, but they were wrong."
Elisabeth is more outspoken than Tim
As Elisabeth and Tim Hasselbeck have retained steady employment in the media trade, it's no secret that the former co-host of "The View" has been far more visible and animated, with no shortage of those anecdotes available for viewing online. Her biggest moments on the show include her dust-up with Rosie O'Donnell over the Iraq war, teetering on the brink of a gay marriage discussion with singer Melissa Etheridge, and jousting with Barbara Walters over the morning-after pill (which produced some backstage drama, too).
Despite a return to "The View" as a guest host in 2022 when she locked horns with colleagues due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Elisabeth hasn't been a regular on TV for years. Tim remains employed at ESPN. Still, he's struggled to remain diplomatic, such as the time when he dumped on his Boston College alma mater for their poor play in 2018. "As a former player, and somebody who likes to see that place do well, that's hard to hear," he said on radio station WEEI (per Fansided). While Elisabeth freely admits to flying off the handle, she seems to be in awe as to how her husband retains a more reserved demeanor. "You're mindful, and you're thoughtful, and you're not quick to make a decision," said Elisabeth to Tim on "That Sounds Fun." "Whereas I'm so unafraid of failure that, like, I will just spit it out and get it wrong, and then I'm trying to mop it up after."
Tim and Elisabeth Hasselbeck traded jobs for a day
At home debating her colleagues on "The View," Elisabeth Hasselbeck must have felt out of her element when she agreed to trade jobs with husband Tim in 2010. "So many times we ask, 'How did work go today?'" Elisabeth told ESPN, where she was slated to work for a day in January. "Undoubtedly we will be finding out the hard way as we switch jobs." Tim commented about showing up on a female-oriented current affairs program, "I'm sure I'll have a greater appreciation for what [Elisabeth] does on a day-in and day-out basis." Glamour agreed with Tim's sentiment, wistfully predicting that the experience would bring the couple more mutual respect, while cynical scribes like Alan Draper at The Sports Daily called the event "another one of those Disney crossover gimmicks." Granted, the announcement generated some attention, although post-show feedback was scarce.
Four months later, Elisabeth's name and ESPN were once again mentioned in the same breath when she chastised the attire worn by sports reporter Erin Andrews on "Dancing With the Stars," drawing a line to the journalist's terrifying experience with a stalker. "In some way, if I'm him, I'm like, 'Man, I just could have waited 12 weeks and seen this — a little bit less — without the prison time,'" said Elisabeth on "The View." She later apologized to Andrews, who was reportedly hurt by the remarks.
The Hasselbecks moved from New York to Nashville
By all accounts, Elisabeth Hasselbeck loved working at Fox News, while husband Tim had easily settled into his gig at ESPN. She enjoyed the work environment and especially hanging with her colleagues on "Fox & Friends." What she wasn't crazy about was how her professional life was taking over the time she was spending with her family. In 2015, she announced that she was leaving Fox to concentrate more on things under her own roof. "I'm in a season where the kids need the best of me, not the rest of me," she said on the morning show (per Fox News). "This is a really, really hard decision, but I know it's the right one, and I thank you all at home for understanding," she added.
She also wanted to leave New York for Nashville, a city that beckoned to her after she hosted a K-LOVE Christian awards gala there. She cajoled Tim into spending a weekend in the Tennessee metropolis, and the decision was unanimous to relocate the family to their version of the promised land. "Something needed to change," Elisabeth told The Tennessean. "[God] was so generous to give me Nashville as a destination. He turned my doubt into direction." The move also made economic sense in that they were able to unload their pad in Connecticut for $4.56 million and take advantage of the difference in equity by purchasing a brick house on the outskirts of Nashville for roughly $2 million.
Elisabeth and Tim are devout Christians
While Elisabeth and Tim Hasselbeck have depended on each other to get through some lean times, the couple has made it clear on several occasions that they both rely on God to handle the co-pilot duties. Tim hasn't been as vocal about his spirituality, but with Elisabeth it's been a different story. During her time as a fiery co-host on "The View," many of her positions, particularly on abortion and contraception, have been based not only on conservative grounds but her Christian upbringing, as well. Elisabeth had a powerful lesson in perspective as an elementary student at St. Mary's School in Rhode Island, when she first tried on a pair of glasses due to problems with her vision. "Little did I know that, years later, I would use the recollection of this event to illustrate the love of God and His vision for all of us," she wrote in "Point of View."
Tim was also raised in a faith-based family, but his lifelong exposure to religion didn't create a huge impression on him until he was playing in the NFL Europe league as a quarterback for the Berlin Thunder. Worried sick, the athlete read a passage about worry from the book of Matthew that turned his head around. "From that point on, I was a different person," he said to The Daily Hatch. "I was able to trust that everything was going to work out. I'd always gone to church every Sunday and had always believed, but it didn't really take over my life until that point."
The family has adjusted to Elisabeth's celiac disease
After getting married, Elisabeth and Tim Hasselbeck wanted to start a family, but they weren't getting the desired results from months of trying. "We were working hard!" noted Elisabeth humorously to Allergic Living. She didn't know it at the time, but her infertility was related to her celiac disease, brought on by gluten in barley, rye and wheat. "You know, there's lack of diagnosis, which is a problem, and I went through that ... too many years, six, before I found a doctor who would actually give me a diagnosis," she said on "Good Morning America." When she wasn't getting answers from physicians, she started doing her own research. She came up with one clue when literally starving on the set of "Survivor" while in Australia: all of her symptoms — from stomach cramps to bloating — disappeared.
Once she found out about her autoimmune deficiency, she altered her diet and ensured that her family also ate accordingly. "Last night, we were eating gluten-free noodles, and they have flax and rice," said Elisabeth to Rachael Ray. "I felt good about them eating that." She then put together a series of recipes and packaged them into her bestseller "The G-Free Diet," which hit retail shelves in 2009. "In no time at all, I found that living G-free wasn't so bad at all!" she wrote in an excerpt from the book (per ABC News). The author wrote "Deliciously G-Free" a few years later, before pivoting to inspirational books.
The Hasselbecks are set for life in Nashville
After more than 20 years of marriage, the Hasselbecks might hint that it hasn't been just love that's kept them together. Economic security contributed well enough for the couple to afford a nice home in Belle Meade, the poshest neighborhood near Nashville.
Celebrity Net Worth estimates that the combined wealth of the couple amounts to $16 million. Elisabeth's earnings from "The View" and "Fox & Friends" haven't been verified. Not much is confirmed about the salaries any of the ladies of "The View" have taken home. Sunny Hoskins revealed on "Just Jenny with Jenny Hutt" that she once was the talk show's lowest-paid co-host. Hoskins said she was granted a few years of back pay, with the help of a lawyer. Rosie O'Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg, however, were each earning $5 million in 2015, per The Hollywood Reporter. It's safe to speculate that Elisabeth's books and her stint on "Good Morning America" might've given her a boost in income.
Similarly, Tim Hasselbeck's earnings from his NFL career and his many years on ESPN aren't public. However, we do know those palatial Nashville digs are worth a couple million. Then there's the cash made from the sale of their old Connecticut home at $4.56 million. The couple might have cash from sales of previous properties. While the Observer reported that they sold their New York condo for $3.1 million at a loss, they flipped and offloaded an Upper West Side apartment at a gain for $1.6 million (per Curbed). Perhaps this successful couple has made it through hard work, luck, and help from The Man Upstairs.