On October 28, 2023, Isabella Strahan underwent emergency surgery to remove a brain tumor, which her neuro-oncologist, Dr. David Ashley, describes as “somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball.”
It was her 19th birthday and Isabella was in the fight of her life.
Michael Strahan with Isabella.Victoria Will
Victoria Will
As is her family, including dad,Good Morning Americaco-anchor,Michael Strahan, twin sister Sophia, and their mom Jean Muggli (the couple divorced in 2006 after seven years of marriage). “Everyone came together to pause their life for mine,” says Isabella in an exclusive interview in this week’s PEOPLE. “They gave me a lot of strength.”
While being treated for cancer, she shared her story in real-time in a series ofYouTube vlogs. Now, along with her family, she is featured in an upcoming ABC special:Life Interrupted: Isabella Strahan’s Fight Against Cancer, airing Feb. 5 at 10 pm and then on Disney + and Hulu, on Feb 6.
Sophia hugs her twin sister Isabella.Victoria Will
The experience was harrowing at times, like when she underwent grueling rounds ofchemotherapy, (“My first round felt like a giant root canal,” she recalls. “My jaw hurt so bad like someone had ripped l my teeth out.”) After an MRI revealed an infection at the surgical site, she had two follow-up surgeries and part of her skull was replaced with a titanium mesh plate.But her story is also one of never giving up hope.
The twins as babies.Jean Muggli Strahan/Instagram
Jean Muggli Strahan/Instagram
“Through it all, she was a champ,” says Michael, also an analyst on FOXNFL Sunday,who reveals he also saw a new side of his twin daughters. (He also has older kids from his first marriage: Michael Jr., 30, and Tanita, 33.)
“I always thought Isabella was the more gentle one,” he says. “But she’s the toughest of anybody in the family — tougher than the football-playing dad. And then I saw a different side of Sophia, when it was time to be gentle and caring and take care of her sister.”
As Isabella notes, “Sophia was good at making me feel like I was 19 years old.”
Isabella Strahan with her twin sister Sophia.Isabella Strahan/Youtube
Isabella Strahan/Youtube
Their mom Jean Muggli remembers sleeping next to Isabella at the hospital and doing whatever she could to distract her. “Trying to play cards, watch a movie, anything to distract her from looking at her phone and seeing what everybody else was doing at college their freshman year,” she recalls. “I know she wanted to be with her friends, being a college girl, and yet she was far from that.”
Jean Muggli with her twin daughters in June 2019.Jean Muggli Strahan/Instagram
Now over a year after her diagnosis, Isabella, 20, isback at USCwhere she’s studying communications and hosting informational Zoom talks with cancer patients (especially younger ones) and their families as part of an independent study project.
Isabella Strahan.Isabella Strahan
Isabella Strahan
She still has some side effects, including balance issues, impaired vision and memory gaps, but she remains vigilant and undergoes scans every three months. According to Dr. Ashley, “She’s got a better than 90 percent chance of this tumor never coming back.”
As Isabella puts it, “It feels like it’s a routine part of my life now. And I definitely see, especially with my vlog, the impact that can come from sharing my experience. I want to be a voice.”
For more on Isabella Strahan and her family, pick up a copy of this week’s PEOPLE.
source: people.com