It was a happy belated birthday celebration for one of Michael Strahan’s daughters, who revealed she hadn’t been “conscious” to celebrate her birthday last year.
The Good Morning America star has twin daughters, Isabella and Sophia, with ex-wife Jean Muggli. Their twins officially turned 19 last October.
However, Isabella was recovering from emergency brain surgery then and was unable to celebrate.
She’s since had an additional surgery and started receiving chemotherapy treatments so she can eventually return to school at the University of Southern California.
She regularly uploads YouTube vlogs about her health journey to educate and inform others. All proceeds go towards The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke.
A recent video captured the highlights of her late 19th birthday celebration, including friends and family.
Isabella enjoys her delayed 19th birthday celebration
Isabella released her 23rd vlog this past week, focusing on her late birthday celebration. After welcoming viewers, she introduced her friend Dallas, beside her.
They joked around a bit after seeming to mess up one intro and started things over with another.
“We’re putting together some cupcakes, and we decided to vlog it- to be baking masters,” Isabella said as they showed the box of cake mix and other items.
As they prepared the mix, including cracking some eggs into the bowl with cake mix, Isabella admitted she wasn’t so much of a baker, but her friend Dallas might be.
They eventually made the batter, poured it into a muffin tray, and baked the cupcakes. Strahan appeared with oven mitts. As he removed the tray from the oven, he pretended to burn his hands.
“I’m joking. It was a joke!” he said, after pretending to drop the pan on the oven top.
As Dallas and Isabella frosted the cupcakes, Isabella said they were for a “birthday celebration.”
“We’re doing a little birthday celebration because I was not conscious for my 19th birthday,” she shared in the vlog.
Black-and-white footage briefly showed the scene from her actual birthday as she was lying in a hospital bed. Her sister Sophia appeared in the vlog. There were balloons and “Happy Birthday” letters on the wall.
“In light of her birthday, we’re gonna sing,” Dallas said as she, Isabella, and Sophia sang Happy Birthday during the more recent video.
They sang with cupcakes in hand, each with a lit candle on it. Sophia, who was celebrating her 19th birthday again, was also mentioned in the song. Strahan popped up from behind them as they finished the song and hugged his daughters.
The vlog ended with “To Be Continued” text on-screen as they enjoyed their cupcakes.
Isabella previously shared an update after chemo
The birthday celebration vlog arrived nearly a week after she’d uploaded a shorter vlog called Post Chemo Round 3.
She revealed she was recording the vlog on a Saturday following her chemo treatment.
“So I feel a lot better. I’ve just been sleeping for like 18 hours, but I’m home, and Sophia comes home this week, which is nice. And other than that, I’ve been really bored, not much in pain,” she shared.
She indicated she didn’t remember much about the past Tuesday due to a drug they were giving her to protect her hearing.
“So if the video seemed loopy, that’s probably why,” she told her vlog viewers.
“Now I have one more round to go, which is exciting,” Isabella also shared, adding, “Literally, I want it to be June already.”
She previously relayed there was a setback with the plans to end her chemotherapy by a specific date, pushing it back a bit further. Isabella revealed she’d wanted to finish chemo treatments earlier to relax and enjoy her summer before heading back to college.
Her health scare first arrived while away at USC last year, as she’d been experiencing headaches with progressively worse symptoms. Eventually, conversations she had with her sister resulted in her family deciding to get Isabella checked out for potential medical issues.
It resulted in her diagnosis of medulloblastoma, and surgery occurred to remove a malignant brain tumor. After the surgery came rehabilitation and recovery, including her current chemotherapy treatments.
Earlier this year, Isabella revealed her diagnosis and recovery journey on GMA. Her dad’s colleague, Robin Roberts, interviewed Isabella as Strahan sat beside his daughter. Isabella told her story on national television to help others with a similar diagnosis and continues to share updates on her @IsabellaStrahan YouTube channel.