Michael Strahan’s daughter Isabella, 19, reveals she’s been diagnosed with BRAIN CANCER – and had to undergo emergency surgery after doctors found tumor bigger than a GOLF BALL

Michael Strahan‘s 19-year-old daughter Isabella broke down in tears as she candidly revealed she’s been battling a rare brain cancer – and had to undergo emergency surgery after doctors found a tumor bigger than a golf ball growing at the back of her brain.

The USC freshman appeared on Good Morning America with her dad on Thursday morning, with the pair opening up to Robin Roberts about the youngster’s ‘serious’ diagnosis.

Budding model Isabella smiled as she told Robin: ‘I’m feeling good, not too bad. I’m very excited for this whole process to wrap but you just have to keep living every day through the whole thing.’

Michael and Isabella revealed that the teenager’s medulloblastoma diagnosis came after she began suffering from ‘excruciating headaches’ during her freshman year in college when she was just 18.

‘I noticed something was off since probably September,’ Isabella, who has a twin sister, Sophia, shared. ‘Like October 1st, that’s when I definitely noticed headaches, nausea, [I] couldn’t walk straight.’

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Michael Strahan’s 20-year-old daughter Isabella has candidly revealed she’s been battling brain cancer after being diagnosed back in October

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Strahan explained that his daughter began suffering from headaches that became increasingly worse, leading them to seek professional help from doctors

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The college freshman (seen at her high school graduation last year) appeared on GMA with her dad on Thursday, with the pair opening up to Robin Roberts about the youngster’s diagnosis

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Initially, Isabella says she mistook her symptoms for vertigo, explaining that she ‘looked that up’ online and ‘associated it with walking straight’.

Michael confessed that when his daughter shared her symptoms with him, he never considered that they might be indications she was battling cancer, particularly because she was just 18 and was so ‘young, strong and healthy’.

‘You know, [she was] 18 years old at the time, you’re not thinking this,’ he said. ‘Maybe it’s vertigo, maybe it’s something else. But she’s young, strong, healthy.

‘Look at her, she looks great.’

However, on October 25th, Isabella’s condition took a severe decline, with the teenager revealing that she began throwing up blood soon after waking up.

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Isabella underwent emergency surgery the day before her 19th birthday to remove a 4cm tumor from the back of her brain

‘I woke up at probably like 1PM,’ she recalled. ‘I dreaded waking up but I was throwing up blood.’

Joking that she thought, ‘this probably isn’t good’, Isabella revealed that she texted her sister to tell her what was going on – and she then ‘notified the whole family’.

It was at that point that Michael said the family decided Isabella ‘really needed to go get a thorough check-up’ with a doctor, adding: ‘Thank goodness for the doctor… I feel like the doctor saved her life.’

Isabella said the doctor ‘did an EKG and other stuff’, before sending her to another facility in order to get an MRI.

‘So I went to take [the MRI] somewhere else and then she called me and she said, “You need to head to Cedars-Sinai right now, I’m going to meet you there,”‘ she recalled – explaining that the doctor gave her no other information about her diagnosis at the time.

Once at the hospital, Isabella was told that she had developed a ‘fast-growing 4cm tumor in the back of her brain’ that required emergency surgery.

According to Michael, he was told about his daughter’s brain tumor before she was, explaining that he ‘doesn’t remember much’ about the moment he learned of her diagnosis, but that he just ‘remembers trying to figure out how to get to LA ASAP’.

Isabella was ultimately diagnosed with medulloblastoma, which – according to GMA – accounts for 20 per cent of all childhood brain tumors and is typically found in around 500 children each year, most commonly those between the ages of five and nine.

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Isabella says she realized something was seriously wrong after she began throwing up blood – and soon after she learned she’d developed a ‘fast-growing 4cm tumor in the back of her brain’

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The teenager had to undergo a month of rehab in the hospital, even having to re-learn how to walk in the wake of her surgery

Following surgery, Isabella underwent a ‘grueling month of rehab’ followed by several rounds of radiation treatment, before she finally got to ring the bell signifying the end of her treatment

On October 27th, one day before her 19th birthday, Isabella underwent emergency surgery to remove the tumor, with Michael stating that doctors wanted to ‘get it out as soon as possible’.

‘It sent a signal of how serious it was when they said, “Hey, you shouldn’t risk trying to put her on a plane to get her to the East Coast or another doctor. We know what it is and we should get it out as soon as possible,”‘ he recalled of his conversation with doctors.

Thankfully, doctors told the family that, although serious, they are ‘confident’ that they can treat Isabella’s cancer.

However, the teenager faced an uphill battle in the wake of the surgery – which she says she does not remember very well – during which time she underwent a ‘grueling month of rehab’, including re-learning how to walk.

‘She was heavily medicated, as you can imagine,’ Michael revealed while sharing several clips of his daughter in hospital in the days after the procedure.

‘But she would have conversations, she had a lot of her friends – they would come over just to sit with her.

‘And there were times when she was in a lot of pain. She was sleeping a lot.’

Following the surgery, Isabella underwent several rounds of proton radiation therapy, which she completed just one day before she revealed her diagnosis to the world.

‘I got to ring the bell [signifying the end of treatment] yesterday,’ she shared with a smile. ‘It was great, it was very exciting because it’s been a long 30 sessions [over] six weeks.’

Laughing as Robin complimented her for ‘rocking’ her bald head, Isabella went on to reveal the other ‘side effects’ that she experienced during her radiation treatment, explaining that she has suffered from ‘fatigue’ and extreme ‘dizziness’.

Isabella broke down in tears as she opened up about her hopes for the future – including returning to college and getting ‘back into a routine’

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Voicing his ‘pride’ over his daughter’s bravery, Michael praised Isabella for ‘going into every day with the best attitude’, even in the face of such a scary diagnosis

‘I would say I experienced fatigue,’ she said. ‘Not too much nausea, but definitely towards the end, because it kind of builds up throughout the weeks.

‘Dizziness, I’ve been very dizzy.’

Isabella is due to start chemotherapy at the February, revealing that she will undergo this step of her treatment at Duke University – where her twin sister Sophia is studying.

Breaking down in tears as Robin praised her for ‘making her mess her message’, the teen went on to reveal that she has partnered with Duke Children’s Hospital on a new YouTube series that will see her documenting her treatment and recovery in an attempt to raise awareness of her cancer.

‘I didn’t know I was going to cry,’ she admitted while breaking down. ‘It’s difficult because when I was trying to see other people who were affected… I think it’s like five in one million, so it’s not very common.

‘It’s been two months of keeping it quiet, which is definitely difficult. I don’t want to hide it anymore because it’s hard to always keep it hidden.

‘I hope to be a voice and be a person people who are maybe going through chemotherapy or radiation can look at and find something interesting in their day.’

She added: ‘Perspective is a big thing. I’m grateful just to walk or see friends or do something, because when you can’t do something, it really impacts you.’

Voicing his ‘pride’ over his daughter’s bravery, Michael praised Isabella for ‘going into every day with the best attitude’, even in the face of such a scary diagnosis.

‘One of the good things with the YouTube channel is that it’s going to Duke, it’s going to help their children’s cancer center and let people see that there is hope,’ he said.

‘You have to just go into every day with the best attitude, which is what she does.

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Isabella will now undergo chemotherapy at Duke University – where her twin sister Sophia is currently studying. The sisters are seen with their dad in 2019

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Michael welcomed daughters Isabella and Sophia with ex-wife Jean Muggli. He has been in a relationship with Kayla Quick (seen right) since 2015

‘I literally think that, in a lot of ways, I’m the luckiest man in the world, because I’ve got an amazing daughter. And I know she’s going through it, but I know that we are never given more than we can handle.

‘And I know she is going to crush this. As much as I need her, I don’t know what I would do without her.’

However, he admitted that the experience of watching his daughter go through her cancer battle has made him realize that he ‘probably isn’t as strong as he thought he was’.

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The teenager enrolled in USC in the fall of 2023 – and says she is looking forward to returning to California and her college experience when she has completed her treatment

‘You learn that you’re probably not as strong as you thought you were when you have to really think about the real things,’ he candidly shared. ‘And I realized that I need support from everybody.

‘You think that I’m the athlete, the tough guy, [that] I can handle it [because] I’m the father of the family.

‘You know, it’s not about any of that. It doesn’t matter. It’s really made me change my perspective on so many things in my life.’

Looking ahead to the future, Isabella said she is hoping to return to the University of Southern California, where she wants to ‘get back into a routine’ and ‘restart’ her experience as a college student.

‘I’m looking forward to going back to college and moving back to California and just starting my school experience over… not over, but just restarting things, getting back into a routine and something that’s enjoyable’ she said.

Speaking through her tears, the teen then shared the inspirational advice that her sister Sophia gave her when she was diagnosed: ‘She said, “You have to keep living just because this is happening…’

As his daughter broke down, Michael offered some reassurance to the teen, telling her, ‘you’ve got this’, before insisting that he knows she will be here for a long time to come.

‘I know this is tough but you keep on living, Isabella,’ he told her. ‘You inspire all of us every single day we are around you. And we love you. We are here for you and you got this.

‘[In] 60, 70 years, you’ll be bugging somebody,’ he joked. ‘I don’t know if that will be me, I hope it is but… you’ll be here baby.’