Isabella Strahan Reacts to Comment About Hair Growth Amid Cancer Journey
Isabella Strahan is feeling happier and healthier in her road to recovery from brain cancer.
After announcing she was cancer free last month, Michael Strahan's daughter has been diving into her next chapter, including getting a new apartment and returning to college at USC. And Isabella—one of the GMA co-host and ex Jean Muggli's twins—is also seeing changes to her appearance two months after she completed her last round of chemotherapy.
In fact, when she shared a TikTok video of herself dancing inside her new place on Aug. 21, a user complimented her about her hair regrowth.
"Hair growing in so prettyyy," the person commented, to which Isabella, 19, replied, "Thanks wifey."
Isabella moved into the apartment just in time to begin the new school year. She had documented her return on social media, sharing a pic of herself and her mom and writing, "Back at USC."
In October 2023, after beginning her freshman year at college and one day before her birthday, Isabella had emergency surgery to remove a medulloblastoma, a malignant tumor, from the base of her brain.
"Was a great year," she wrote in a TikTok recap video in August, "till it wasn’t."
Over the next few months, Isabella underwent two more brain surgeries, as well as radiation therapy and several rounds of chemotherapy.
"@isabellastrahan you are a SUPERWOMAN," Michael wrote in a June 16 Instagram post. "Ringing that bell finishing chemo and on your way. You continue to fight with a smile on your face, strength, and determination. I am one proud Dad! Love you, Bella."
In July, Isabella shared that she had a "great, great" MRI scan that showed no malignancies. "Everything was clear. Cancer-free," Isabella said in a video posted to her YouTube channel. "And everything is great."
She will continue to be monitored by her medical team. "I don't have another doctor's appointment till October," Isabella said on her vlog. "I miss my doctors already and everyone who's helped me because they're all so nice. I feel like I'm just saddened today, knowing that I wasn't going to be going back for a while because I love them so much."
Read on to learn more about Isabella's inspiring cancer journey...
Isabella Strahan—the daughter of former couple Michael Strahan and Jean Muggli—said she "didn't notice anything was off" about her health until early October 2023, when she started experiencing headaches and nausea.
After throwing up blood one day, she got a full checkup and MRI scan at the urging of her dad. The results showed medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumor found in children.
Later that month, she underwent brain surgery to remove the mass.
Isabella went public with her diagnosis in a January 2024 interview with her dad and ABC News' Robin Roberts.
"I literally think that in a lot of ways, I'm the luckiest man in the world because I've got an amazing daughter," Michael noted at the time. "I know she's going through it, but I know that we're never given more than we can handle and that she is going to crush this."
Isabella's twin sister Sophia Strahan also offered her support. "I'm so lucky to have the most amazing sister and best friend in the world," she wrote on Instagram. "The last few months have been so much harder than we could have ever imagined, but it's made me realize just how strong you are"
Following her interview, Isabella shared she had finished her round of radiation therapy.
"I'm very excited to finally be done," she said in a Jan. 16 YouTube video. "It's been a long six weeks and I'm very happy to finally heal my head after all of this because the side effects and everything get to you."
Following radiation therapy, Isabella began undergoing chemotherapy to treat her cancer.
"My whole mouth feels like I got one giant root canal," she shared in a Feb. 16 vlog. "Every single tooth, just ripped out and not even surgically put back in. My jaw hurts, the bottom of my tongue hurts. It hurts when I gulp water."
Still, the teen kept her spirits up, joking in a video posted a week later that her hair is "insufficient now."
"Besides being bald," she said, "it doesn't bring me pain mentally."
Though Isabella was initially scheduled to undergo her second round of chemotherapy in early March, she underwent emergency surgery on her skull—during which doctors drained out extra fluid from her head and replaced a bone they had originally cut out with a titanium plate—which pushed her chemo back by weeks.
"I'm in so much pain," she said in a March 6 vlog. "My face is extremely puffy, and this sucks. I was in so much pain earlier. I was, like, screaming."
Isabella's dad Michael arranged for her favorite singer Bryson Tiller to stop by their New York City home as a pick-me-up amid her treatments.
"You haven't moved this much in months!" Michael joked to his daughter in her vlog of the visit. "You are fangirling right now."
Isabella shared in a March 21 video that she had started her second round of chemotherapy, meaning there was "just four more" rounds to go.
Amid her second chemotherapy round, Isabella said she began experiencing difficulties in walking.
"I literally can't walk without being lightheaded or out of breath," she shared in a March 27 vlog, lamenting that there isn't an "anti-exhaustion medicine" she could take.
The YouTuber had a positive update after finishing her second round of chemotherapy, sharing that she would only have to undergo two more rounds of instead of the originally scheduled four.
"These are happy tears," she said in a video posted April 10. "It's not even considering crying when it's happy tears."
However, Isabella hit a bump in the road in her treatment plan when she had to undergo a third craniotomy. According to the teen, this procedure was unlike anything she had previously experienced.
"Not going to lie, I've been crying a lot," she detailed in an April 12 vlog. "They sunk a needle in three spots and drained fluid, and I was completely awake for this. So, my first completely awake surgery."
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