Elisabeth Hasselbeck Returns to Fox & Friends After Cancer Scare

After mysteriously disappearing from Fox & Friends for a month because she was having an unidentified surgery, Elisabeth Hasselbeck has returned to “the curvy couch,” revealing that she had a tumor in her abdomen that turned out not to be cancer. She also shut down rumors she might have been getting plastic surgery.

“I had a bit of a scare,” Hasselbeck said on-air Friday, explaining that she had surgery to have the tumor removed and “had a scary week” while she waited to find out if it was cancer. It was not, and now she’s thankful for those who allowed her “privacy and quiet” while she dealt with her health issues.

“I’m not a person who thinks or believes that they take a lot for granted but I certainly don’t take it for granted now,” she said, before praising the entire Fox News team, including Roger Ailes: “Thank for for giving me the time that I needed to recover.” In a feat of fantastic timing, she was then given a Cake Boss cake.

Later in the episode, Hasselbeck was shown a video of her children pretending to be her and her fellow Fox News co-hosts on the show, which caused her to tear up. Former View co-host Sherri Shepherd also dropped by to say hi. (The two joked that Hasselbeck had taken “30 percent” of the View‘s audience with her to Fox News and that The View needs that back, a dig to that show’s ratings.) Earlier on, Hasselbeck had confusingly said, “No additions, only removals happened while I was gone, but I am so happy to be back on this couch.” That statement made more sense when Shepherd showed up: Hasselbeck added, “By the way, I have to say there were some rumors coming in here that I had some additional things, some enhancements, so I just brought you, because this is all the enhancement you need right here.”