Michael Strahan Reveals 'Hardest Thing' He Had to Hear During Daughter Isabella's Cancer 'Fight'

Michael Strahan is looking back on his daughter’s “fight” with a rare form of brain cancer in a candid new interview with People. 

The Good Morning America personality and his family all sat down with the publication approximately six months after Isabella Strahan, now 20, revealed she was in remission following a nearly year-long battle with medulloblastoma.

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In October 2023, Isabella, just 19, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor primarily found in children much younger than the college student. She underwent immediate surgery to remove the tumor her doctor described as “somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball,” followed by months of radiation, chemotherapy, and two other emergent craniotomies. 

“She wasn’t eating much,” her father recalled as he reflected on the height of her treatment. “She was thin and tired and bald and all the things you hate to see your kid go through.”

Through it all, though, Michael said, “Her spirit was there,” and she was “going to fight” from the start. Still, the ferocity of her determination to beat the disease left a lasting impression on the former NFL player.    

“One of the things she said, probably the hardest thing I had to hear was, ‘Dad I’ll do whatever. I want to live,’” he recalled. 

Her mom, Jean Muggli, also commended her “strength and resilience,” describing it as “the same as it was when she was a little girl.”

“The way she handled every day with grace was amazing,” she added. 

Today, Isabella is back at the University of Southern California studying communications, but the weight of the cancer still lingers as she faces several years, at least, of regular scans to make sure the tumor doesn’t grow back. 

“Her doctors feel very confident, she’s going to be fine,” Michael affirmed, but it doesn’t make the nerves go away each time they follow up. “That will never go away,” he continued, “But as long as the results come back positive, then we’ll live to fight another day.”

Next: Isabella Strahan Glows in New Photos Showing Off Post-Remission Hair Transformation