Michael Strahan Reflects on Daughter’s Cancer Diagnosis: ‘The Worst Part Was Feeling Helpless’
Michael Strahan has found healing in the almost two years since his daughter, Isabella, announced that she’s cancer-free.
The former NFL player spoke to Keke Palmer on the Tuesday (July 7) episode of Baby, This Is Keke Palmer about coming to accept his daughter’s health struggles. Strahan shares Isabella and her twin sister, Sophia, 21, with his second wife, Jean Muggli, who he was married to from 1999 to 2006.
In October 2023, when Isabella was 19 years old, she was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a rare form of brain cancer. After undergoing chemotherapy, which she chronicled on YouTube, the then-teen announced that her treatment was successful and she was cancer-free in June 2024.
“I learned that in life sometimes you’ve got to let go,” Strahan told Palmer around the hour-mark of the video below. “You’ve got to pray. You’ve got to depend on prayers. You got to trust in doctors or whoever can handle the situation because that’s one of them things [that is] completely out of your hands.”
The media personality added that “the worst part was feeling helpless.”
“I can’t fix this. You know, something goes wrong at school or I need this or that or that. ‘Alright, your needs are tickets to this concert. You can’t get them. Dad will help you out,’” he continued. “You can fix whatever needs to be fixed. In this case, it was no just fixing it.”
Strahan compared the first month of his daughter’s cancer diagnosis to a bad dream that was “devastating and very scary.”
“You know what you’re hoping for. You know what you’re praying for. And even now, she’s—thank God—cancer free. Back at school, crushing it, doing well, back to her 21-year-old life,” he added.
Strahan still voiced concern about his daughter getting a scan every 3 months. “You still worry. Even though doctors feel good [about results], you still worry. It’s never far away from your mind.”
The father-of-four added that being diagnosed with cancer likely changed Isabella, who he called a “sweet kid.” “I just think that this gave her some sense of appreciation a little bit more at her age,” he said.
Last year, Isabella’s cancer battle was documented in Hulu special Life Interrupted: Isabella Strahan’s Fight Against Cancer.
