Michael Strahan/Instagram
‘Good Morning America’ Host Michael Strahan’s Daughter Isabella Reveals Brain Cancer Diagnosis
Good Morning America host Michael Strahan’s daughter, Isabella Strahan, revealed she was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a type of brain cancer that forms in the cerebellum.
Isabella, 20, appeared on Good Morning America alongside her dad on Thursday, January 11, to open up about her current health struggles.
Isabella discussed how she knew something was “off” on October 1, 2023, during her freshman year in college at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She said that she experienced headaches, nausea, and being unable to walk straight. However, Isabella brushed off the symptoms as being related to vertigo. It wasn’t until she woke up on October 25 and began “throwing up blood” did Michael, 52, and the rest of Isabella’s family insist she seek medical attention right away.
“That was when we decided, ‘You need to really go get a thorough checkup,’” Michael explained. “And thank goodness for the doctor. I feel like this doctor saved her life because she was thorough enough to say, ‘Let’s do the full checkup.’”
During an MRI at Cedars-Sinai, doctors discovered a mass larger than a golf ball at around 4 centimeters. Because it was fast-growing, the doctors insisted Isabella undergo emergency surgery on October 27.
“It didn’t feel real,” Michael recalled about learning of Isabella’s diagnosis. “I don’t really remember much. I just remember trying to figure out how to get to [Los Angeles] ASAP.”
His daughter’s diagnosis and subsequent surgery prompted Michael to take some time off from Good Morning America. At the time, he told People he was “dealing with some personal family matters.”
After surgery, Isabella received several rounds of radiation and she underwent a month of rehabilitation to get her back on track, and on Wednesday, January 10, Isabella got to “ring the bell” at the hospital which marked the end of her current radiation treatment.
Her next steps involve receiving chemotherapy at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, North Carolina, but Isabella said she was “feeling good.”
“I’m ready for it to start and be one day closer to being over. …. I’m very excited for this whole process to wrap,” Isabella said. “But you just have to keep living every day, I think, through the whole thing.”
Michael called himself “the luckiest man in the world” as he raved about his “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,” Michael told his cohost Robin Roberts.
The dad of four said that it’s “rare” for someone of Isabella’s age to get diagnosed with medulloblastoma. However, approximately 500 kids a year receive the same diagnosis.
Overall, Isabella said she was just happy to be able to talk about her cancer diagnosis.
“It’s been like, two months of keeping it quiet, which is definitely difficult. I don’t wanna hide it anymore ’cause it’s hard to always keep in,” she explained. “I hope to just kind of be a voice and be [someone] who maybe [those who] are going through chemotherapy or radiation can look at.”
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