The 19-year-old daughter of Michael Strahan, an NFL Hall of Famer and “Good Morning America” co-anchor, is battling brain cancer.
Isabella Strahan appeared on a pre-recorded videotape piece, sitting next to her father and addressing her diagnosis of medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumor, with fellow GMA co-host Robin Roberts.
The segment was shot on Wednesday at the show’s New York studios and aired Thursday as part of the morning newscast.
Isabella Strahan says she was diagnosed in October of her freshman year at Southern California. She suffered
worsening headaches and dizziness, and near the end of the month, she awoke bleeding. Within two days, she
underwent emergency surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to remove a golf ball-sized tumor. It
was followed by four weeks of rehabilitation and multiple rounds of radiation therapy, which resulted in hair loss.
“I’m doing well.” Isabella replied, “Not too bad,” when asked how she was feeling. “I’m very excited for this whole process to wrap, but you just have to keep living every day.”
Her recuperation will continue with treatment at Duke University, which will begin next month. Sophia, her twin sister, attends Duke.
Isabella stopped numerous times during the conversation to wipe tears from her eyes, especially when she considered returning to school and continuing that chapter of her life.
“I literally think that in a lot of ways, I’m the luckiest man in the world because I got an amazing daughter, and I know she’s going through it,” the former New York Giants defensive end and Super Bowl champion said. “But I know we’re never given more than we can manage, and she’ll smash this just as much as I need her to. “I’m not sure what I’d do without her.”
