In an emotional Good Morning America segment, Michael Strahan’s daughter, Isabella, opened up about her brain tumor diagnosis.
The 19-year-old college student is currently undergoing treatment after being diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a common malignant tumor that grows in the cerebellum, the part of the brain at the base of the skull.
As Isabella Strahan and her father explained on GMA Thursday, they learned about her condition in late October 2023. She then underwent emergency surgery at Cedars-Sinai to remove the mass on October 27, just one day shy of her 19th birthday.
Isabella will start chemotherapy at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, North Carolina, next month. She says she’s “feeling good” ahead of her treatment.
“I’m feeling good. Not too bad,” Isabella Strahan said. “That’s my next step. 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. But you just have to keep living every day, I think, through the whole thing.”
Strahan’s coworker, Robin Roberts, detailed the size of the tumor, stating that it was about as big as a golf ball lodged in the base of her skull.
“I literally think that, in a lot of ways, I’m the luckiest man in the world, because I’ve got an amazing daughter,” loving father Michael Strahan added. “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.”
.@MichaelStrahan's daughter Isabella opens up about her brain tumor battle, with Michael telling @RobinRoberts: “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.” https://t.co/zZJMG7h8OV pic.twitter.com/3GJE4O4jHj
— Good Morning America (@GMA) January 11, 2024
Michael Strahan Has Been Away From ‘GMA’ to Spend Time With Isabella
Isabella noted that she began noticing symptoms after starting her freshman year at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “I didn’t notice anything was off ’til probably like October 1,” she said. “That’s when I definitely noticed headaches, nausea, couldn’t walk straight.”
Strahan went on to explain that she initially brushed off the symptoms as a minor illness. When she awoke in the early hours of October 25 “throwing up blood,” however, she could no longer ignore the danger.
“That was when we decided, ‘You need to really go get a thorough checkup,'” Michael Strahan said. “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.'”
Upon receiving a full MRI at Mount Cedars-Sinai, doctors found the 4-centimeter tumor. “It didn’t feel real,” Michael recalled. “I don’t really remember much. I just remember trying to figure out how to get to [Los Angeles] ASAP.”
The GMA host has been taking time away from the show for “personal family matters” and revealed that his daughter’s health was the reason. Michael Strahan understandably stepped away from work to spend his time at his daughter’s side.
“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,” Isabella said on GMA. “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.”