Michael Strahan’s 19-year-old daughter Isabella shares brain tumor diagnosis
Isabella Strahan is undergoing treatment after being diagnosed with medulloblastoma.
Michael Strahan is standing by his daughter Isabella Strahan’s side as she undergoes treatment following the discovery and emergency removal of a malignant brain tumor.
On Thursday, the television host and his daughter opened up about her health journey during an in-depth interview on “Good Morning America” with Strahan’s colleague, cancer survivor Robin Roberts.
Isabella explained that she had been diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a malignant tumor that grows in the cerebellum, a part of the brain located at the base of the skull. As noted by Strahan, while the condition is the most common type of cancerous brain tumor found in children, it is “rarely” found in patients her age. The 19-year-old is currently preparing to undergo chemotherapy at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, North Carolina.
Isabella said she was feeling good but also “very excited for this whole process to wrap.”
The college freshman and model, who recently made headlines for appearing in a campaign for Sephora, said she first detected something was wrong around the beginning of October. She was experiencing excruciating headaches, dizzy spells, and nausea. She and her father initially thought she might have developed vertigo.
“Eighteen years old at the time, you’re not thinking this,” Strahan said, adding, “She’s young. She’s strong. She’s healthy. Look at her; she looks great.”
After Isabella’s condition worsened to vomiting blood, she went to a doctor for a proper checkup at the urging of her family. When Isabella’s lab results revealed there was a fast-growing mass at the base of her skull the size of a golf ball, her physician immediately had her admitted to Cedars-Sinai for emergency removal, one day before her 19th birthday on Oct. 27.
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Both Isabella and her father noted how much of that experience and her recovery were a blur in the days after the procedure.
“It just doesn’t feel real,” he said, later adding. “It’s still scary because it’s still so much to go through … And the hardest thing to get over is to think that she has to go through this herself.”
Strahan, a father of four, also expressed how proud he was of his daughter for pushing through and being willing to share her experience publicly.
“I’m very proud of her. She’s always been strong,” he gushed, adding, “This is something that is so personal that I didn’t know if it would be something that you would want to share. I’m extremely proud.”
Initially, Isabella had kept her diagnosis private. However, on Thursday, she also began documenting her health journey for Duke’s Children’s Hospital through her YouTube channel, with proceeds benefitting the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke. In her first video about her battle against her brain tumor, she notes how she doesn’t feel like herself.
“I just had a Sephora ad come out that I shot in May 2023. So it’s super exciting, but I remember being so excited to go to the store and take a selfie with it, and I can’t do that right now because I don’t really feel like myself or that person in the ad,” she said.
She continued, “These past two months, it’s been rough. It’s been challenging, and it’s been very hard, but I know I’ll get through it. I know time will heal, and things will get back to being — I can’t really say normal because there’s not really normal now in my life, but things will get back to being calmer.”
On “GMA,” Strahan added, “I literally think that, in a lot of ways, I’m the luckiest man in the world because I’ve got an amazing daughter. I know she’s going through it, but I know that we’re never given more than we can handle and that she is going to crush this.”
In addition to her devoted father, Isabella also has her twin sister, Sophia Strahan, and several friends who have been at her side since her diagnosis and treatment began. Sophia, in particular, has been motivating for her sister.
“Something Sophia said to me, ‘you have to keep living,’” Isabella said through tears, to which Strahan replied, “You’ve been doing that. I know this is tough, but you keep on living, Isabella. You’re inspiring all of us every single day. We’re around you, and we love you, and we’re here for you.”
He also reassured his daughter that she would make it through and be here 60 or even 70 years from now.
“You’ll be bugging somebody,” Strahan joked. “I don’t know if it’ll be me; I hope it is, but you will be here, baby.”
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