Michael Strahan’s daughter Isabella, 19 details ‘rough’ brain cancer battle with hospital photos

Michael Strahan and his daughter, Isabella, have revealed that the 19-year-old has been diagnosed with brain cancer. 

They opened up about her health battle for the first time in a “GMA” interview Thursday. Shortly after, the college student launched her new YouTube series, which will document her journey.

In the vlog titled “How it started,” Isabella (who Strahan, 52, had with his second ex-wife, Jean Muggli), talked directly to the camera from her bed.

In the caption of the video, she wrote, “This is my story on finding out I have Medulloblastoma and undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor. I hope to inspire many by sharing my story, this is just the beginning.” 

She also noted, “All proceeds will go towards the The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke.”

In the nearly 7-minute video, a bald Isabella smiled and appeared mainly cheerful. She described how she was in a Sephora ad that came out in May 2023, but didn’t want to take a selfie with it because no one knew at the time what she “was going through.”

“I don’t really feel like myself or the person in the ad so I don’t want to take a photo with it. It’s been rough. It’s been challenging. It’s been very hard. But I know time will heal and things will get back to — I can’t really say normal because there’s not really a normal now in my life,” she said. “But things will get back to being calmer.”

In her emotional “GMA” interview with her father — who took several absences from the show for “personal family matters” before making this news public — the University of Southern California freshman revealed that it has been “two months of keeping it quiet, which has been difficult.”

Isabella, who noted that she doesn’t want to “hide” her journey anymore, “didn’t notice anything was off ’til probably like Oct. 1.”

“That’s when I definitely noticed headaches, nausea, and couldn’t walk straight,” she told Robin Roberts. One morning, she then notified her family that she was “throwing up blood.”

On “GMA,” Straham recalled about that time, “I don’t really remember much. 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.”

She underwent brain surgery in October, followed by rehabilitation and six weeks of radiation treatment. In February, she will begin chemotherapy at Duke University, where her twin sister Sophia attends.

“I’m feeling good, not too bad,” she said. 

In her vlog, she revealed she “felt perfectly normal” when she moved into college in August, but then walking became a challenge.

“Every time I was walking I could not walk in a straight line, so that’s why I thought I had vertigo. And I’d also wake up nauseous and have to throw up most days, which was not really normal for me. And I thought that was just from the dizziness because I would wake up dizzy,” she explained.

By October, she “definitely knew something was wrong” when she traveled to New York for a modeling gig. She ultimately had to cancel the job because she was throwing up too much.

She went to an ear and throat doctor, who diagnosed her with an inner ear infection, but, she said, “I kind of knew it was more than that.”

Isabella shared hospital photos, including a photo of herself in an MRI on her intimate vlog. Text on-screen in her video said, “On October 19th, 2023, I ended up celebrating my 19th birthday by having a tumor removed from my brain.”

The video cut to footage of her lying in a hospital bed, with family and friends standing around her singing, “Happy birthday.”

She finished her first vlog by saying, “There is a light at the end of the tunnel and things will get better. You just have to think positively.”