Speaking candidly about his daughter’s brain cancer, Michael Strahan says something he will never forget
«I knew she wouldn’t quit» is how the co-anchor of «Good Morning America» describes Isabella’s fortitude and tenacity in the face of a brain tumor at the age of 19.
Michael Strahan continued to search «for the silver lining somewhere,» he says, «some light at the end of the tunnel,» during his daughter Isabella’s most trying moments, following the removal of her brain tumor and her subsequent chemotherapy.
Isabella, who was 19 at the time, was fighting an aggressive brain disease called medulloblastoma in the early months of 2024. Michael claims that she wasn’t eating much.
«She was bald, exhausted, and thin—all the things you don’t want to watch your child go through.» Nevertheless, he continues, «Her spirit was there.» One of her statements was maybe the most difficult for me to hear.
The 53-year-old co-anchor of Good Morning America says, «I knew she wouldn’t quit.» «She fought, as she had promised.»
Isabella, now 20, is cancer-free following numerous rounds of radiation therapy, intense chemotherapy, and multiple surgeries. In advance of a forthcoming ABC special, the Strahan family tells the tale of her struggle in this week’s PEOPLE:
Isabella Strahan’s Fight to Beat Cancer, Life Interrupted, will premiere on Disney+ and Hulu on February 5 at 10 p.m. and the following day, February 6.
«I always say she’s a lot stronger than I am,» says Michael, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.Isabella started having nausea, dizziness, and crippling migraines in the fall of 2023, when she was just starting school at the University of Southern California.
