Michael Strahan and his daughter Isabella revealed in an emotional “Good Morning America” interview Thursday that she has been diagnosed with brain cancer.
Doctors told Isabella, 19, that she had a malignant brain tumor known as a medulloblastoma in October 2023, about a month after she began experiencing headaches at the start of her freshman year of college.
“I didn’t notice anything was off ’til probably like Oct. 1,” she told Robin Roberts.
“That’s when I definitely noticed headaches, nausea, couldn’t walk straight.”
Weeks later, the University of Southern California student woke up “throwing up blood.”
“I was like, ‘Hm, this probably isn’t good.’ So I texted [my sister], who then notified the whole family,” she recalled.
After undergoing a battery of tests, including an MRI, Isabella was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she learned of her “fast-growing, 4-centimeter tumor” that was larger than a golf ball.
The former NFL player, 52, said he received the traumatic news before his daughter.
“I don’t really remember much,” he said. “I just remember trying to figure out how to get to LA ASAP. And it just doesn’t feel real. It just didn’t feel real.”
Strahan was absent from “GMA” for more than three weeks in late October due to “personal family matters,” but never disclosed details of his leave.
A medulloblastoma is a type of malignant tumor that accounts for about 20 percent of all childhood brain tumors, according to estimates published in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience.
“But rarely someone who’s 18, 19 years old,” Michael said. “But 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.”
The day before her 19th birthday, Isabella underwent emergency surgery to remove the tumor — and then had to relearn how to walk with assistance from her twin sister, Sophia. She also underwent radiation therapy and 30 days of rehabilitation.
“So I just finished radiation therapy, which is proton radiation, and I got to ring the bell yesterday,” she said.
“It was great. It was very exciting because it’s been a long 30 sessions, six weeks.”
Despite lingering side effects from her treatment, Isabella said she is “feeling good” and looking forward to getting back to her everyday life.
“I’m very excited for this whole process to wrap. But you just have to keep living every day, I think, through the whole thing,” she said.
Isabella will relocate to the East Coast to start chemotherapy at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, NC.
“That’s my next step. I’m ready for it to start and be one day closer to being over,” she said.
Both Isabella and the former New York Giants athlete said the experience has changed their perspectives.
“You think that I’m the athlete, the tough guy, you know, I can come and handle, I’m the father in the family. It is not about any of that. It doesn’t matter,” he shared, with Isabella adding that she is “grateful.”
Michael shares Isabella and Sophia with his second ex-wife, Jean Muggli. He also is a father to daughter Tanita, 32, and son Michael Jr., 29, whom he shares with his first wife, Wanda Hutchins.
