Michael Strahan Shares "Worst-Case" Fear During Daughter Isabella’s Cancer Fight

Michael Strahan is glad to be in the end-zone now that his daughter Isabella Strahan is cancer-free. 

But while the NFL Hall of Famer’s daughter underwent multiple rounds of surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation over the past year for medulloblastoma—a malignant brain tumor—Michael admitted he was frightened that she might die.

“As a parent you hear that your kid has cancer and you go, ‘Whoa,’” Michael told Town & Country in an interview published Oct. 29. “You have to control your thoughts, because your brain thinks of the worst case scenario and then you work your way back from there.”

He noted, “I don’t think I’ll go through the rest of my life without some worry in some shape or form about this.”

The Good Morning America anchor—who shares Isabella and her twin sister, Sophia, both 20, with ex Jean Muggli, as well as children Tanita, 32, and Michael Jr., 31, with ex-wife Wanda Hutchins—also described how difficult it was to witness Isabella go through treatment. 

“It’s been a crazy year,” Michael continued. “I think in the long run we’ll figure out a way to benefit from it. The process was a lot scarier than we imagined—seeing her come out of surgery, and all the things she had to learn how to do again. You just pray that everything gets back to normal.”

He added, “There were times when we said, ‘We know it’s painful and tough, but it’s temporary.’” 

As for how Isabella—who recently re-started her freshman year at the University of Southern California—is feeling now that she is three months cancer-free? She shared she still has double vision, difficulty gaining weight and her “balance is all over the place,” but that’s progress from where she used to be. 

“I feel like I’ve grown in many ways,” Isabella told the outlet. “I’m super-­grateful for walking and talking again. You don’t think of the things you can do until you live without them.”

But her dad made sure to look on the bright side of her growth.

“The vision and balance stuff sound like me,” Michael said. “Yours is going to come back. I’m getting old. Just wait till you get to the point in your life where you’re like, ‘God, I don’t want to gain any more weight.’”

For more of Isabella’s journey to becoming cancer-free, keep reading… 

Isabella Strahan—the daughter of former couple Michael Strahan and Jean Muggli—said she "didn't notice anything was off" about her health until early October 2023, when she started experiencing headaches and nausea.

After throwing up blood one day, she got a full checkup and MRI scan at the urging of her dad. The results showed medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumor found in children.

Later that month, she underwent brain surgery to remove the mass.

Isabella went public with her diagnosis in a January 2024 interview with her dad and ABC News' Robin Roberts.

"I literally think that in a lot of ways, I'm the luckiest man in the world because I've got an amazing daughter," Michael noted at the time. "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."

Isabella's twin sister Sophia Strahan also offered her support. "I'm so lucky to have the most amazing sister and best friend in the world," she wrote on Instagram. "The last few months have been so much harder than we could have ever imagined, but it's made me realize just how strong you are"

Following her interview, Isabella shared she had finished her round of radiation therapy.

"I'm very excited to finally be done," she said in a Jan. 16 YouTube video. "It's been a long six weeks and I'm very happy to finally heal my head after all of this because the side effects and everything get to you."

Following radiation therapy, Isabella began undergoing chemotherapy to treat her cancer.

"My whole mouth feels like I got one giant root canal," she shared in a Feb. 16 vlog. "Every single tooth, just ripped out and not even surgically put back in. My jaw hurts, the bottom of my tongue hurts. It hurts when I gulp water." 

Still, the teen kept her spirits up, joking in a video posted a week later that her hair is "insufficient now."

"Besides being bald," she said, "it doesn't bring me pain mentally." 

Though Isabella was initially scheduled to undergo her second round of chemotherapy in early March, she underwent emergency surgery on her skull—during which doctors drained out extra fluid from her head and replaced a bone they had originally cut out with a titanium plate—which pushed her chemo back by weeks.

"I'm in so much pain," she said in a March 6 vlog. "My face is extremely puffy, and this sucks. I was in so much pain earlier. I was, like, screaming."

Isabella's dad Michael arranged for her favorite singer Bryson Tiller to stop by their New York City home as a pick-me-up amid her treatments.

"You haven't moved this much in months!" Michael joked to his daughter in her vlog of the visit. "You are fangirling right now."

Isabella shared in a March 21 video that she had started her second round of chemotherapy, meaning there was "just four more" rounds to go.

Amid her second chemotherapy round, Isabella said she began experiencing difficulties in walking.

"I literally can't walk without being lightheaded or out of breath," she shared in a March 27 vlog, lamenting that there isn't an "anti-exhaustion medicine" she could take.

The YouTuber had a positive update after finishing her second round of chemotherapy, sharing that she would only have to undergo two more rounds of instead of the originally scheduled four.

"These are happy tears," she said in a video posted April 10. "It's not even considering crying when it's happy tears."

However, Isabella hit a bump in the road in her treatment plan when she had to undergo a third craniotomy. According to the teen, this procedure was unlike anything she had previously experienced.

"Not going to lie, I've been crying a lot," she detailed in an April 12 vlog. "They sunk a needle in three spots and drained fluid, and I was completely awake for this. So, my first completely awake surgery."

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