When Michael Strahan’s daughter Isabella was diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer in September 2023, the Good Morning America co-anchor suddenly found himself facing the unthinkable. In that painful moment, his colleague — and cancer survivor — Robin Roberts shared words that still carry him through.
“Robin told me something that really helped,” Strahan recalls in an interview with PEOPLE. “She said, ‘You think when you have cancer you’re going to wake up every day and think, Oh, I have cancer. But at some point, you wake up and you just live. You don’t even think about it.’” Strahan says he longs for the day Isabella, now 20, fully feels that way again.
Isabella’s journey has been one of resilience: diagnosed just as she started college, she endured months of radiation and chemotherapy before ringing the bell in June 2024 to mark her remission. Now back at USC studying communications, she’s documenting her recovery in YouTube vlogs and hopes to inspire others facing similar battles. “My diagnosis is part of me,” she says, “but it doesn’t define me.”
Her family’s story — and the advice that helped them navigate sleepless nights and heartache — will be shared in ABC’s special Life Interrupted: Isabella Strahan’s Fight Against Cancer, airing February 5 and streaming February 6 on Disney+ and Hulu.
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