Chris Ann Brennan, the mother of Jobs' eldest daughter Lisa, wrote a letter to the late Apple CEO in 2005 asking him to repent and pay her compensation. This previously unknown moment in their complex history together was told by Fortune magazine.
Of the many love-hate relationships that Steve Jobs had during his remarkable 56 years on earth, none were as fraught with complications as his relationship with Chris Ann Brennan, the founder's first girlfriend of Apple and the mother of his daughter Lisa.
They met at the age of 17 in 1972 while attending high school in Cupertino, California. Brennan's tumultuous relationship with Jobs - initial rejection of paternity, difficult communication with Lisa, limited financial support—continued until his death almost four decades later. In her 2013 memoir, The Bite in the Apple, Brennan was portrayed as "the object of his cruelty."
But there is still an unrevealed chapter in the story of their tormented relationship from the period covered by Brennan's book to the time when her ex-boyfriend became incredibly famous and rich. This is the story of how she asked Jobs, then a billionaire, to repent for his "dishonest behavior" by paying $25 million to her and another $5 million to her 27-year-old daughter.
Brennan outlined her request in an undated two-page letter she said she sent to Jobs in December 2005. The fortune of 50-year-old Jobs, CEO Apple and Pixar, then valued at $3 billion.
“I raised our daughter in conditions that were much tougher and more difficult than they should have been,” she wrote to Jobs. “Obviously it was all more confusing and difficult because you had so much money… I believe that decency and ending discord can be achieved with money. It's very simple."
Jobs ignored her request, Brennan says. A few months later, she began writing a memoir about her relationship.
A little over three years after the letter to Jobs asking for money, Brennan tried again. In 2009, ill, penniless and living with friends, she contacted him again. This time, Brennan offered to delay the publication of the book (according to her, Lisa did not want publication anyway) in exchange for a financial settlement.
“I ask for the last time to create a trust for me,” Brennan wrote to Jobs on September 26, 2009. “I don't want to create conflict, but I have to do something. I've been sick for 3 years and I just don't have a choice anymore....None of us will get better from this book, it will hurt Lisa too who never deserved anything like that. The choice is yours. Please consider giving me $10,000 within a few months and setting up a trust. We can't meet because I'm very sick and my life hangs in the balance. Under these circumstances, I need to get the money as soon as possible, and the choice is simple: either you or the book.
“I don’t respond well to blackmail,” Jobs replied. "I will not take part in any of the proposals."
Lisa was born in May 1978 when Jobs broke up with Brennan. Steve, who had already founded Apple and was quite wealthy, named one of the first Apple personal computers after his daughter. However, he denied paternity for over two years while Brennan cleaned houses, worked as a waitress, and received welfare. At one point, Jobs even swore in a signed court document that he could not be Lisa's father, as he was "sterile and infertile" and did not have "the physical ability to procreate." (He had three more children after marrying Powell in 1991).
Steve Jobs and Lauren Powell Jobs After a lawsuit forced Jobs to take a paternity test, the court ruled to provide support for the child by reimbursing the state for social expenses. Jobs started paying $500 a month. A month later, Apple went public, making Jobs worth over $225 million. While Jobs rarely visited his daughter for years, bought a mansion and drove a Mercedes, Brennan barely made ends meet.
Steve Jobs with daughter Lisa Brennan says that Jobs later apologized for his treatment of her and Lisa. After his relationship with his daughter improved, Lisa's last name was changed to Brennan-Jobs at the age of 9. Gradually, father's support increased to 4 thousand dollars a month.
Jobs later bought Brennan two cars and a house for $400,000, paid for Lisa's education at private school occasionally provided her with other financial assistance. IN high school Lisa lived with her father and his family for the first time. In her essay, Lisa-turned-writer writes, “Growing up I was very poor, very rich, and sometimes in between.”
Jobs' money and favor could end at any moment. One summer, after a conflict with Lisa, who had returned home from Harvard, the Jobs stopped supporting her and refused to pay her college tuition. Lisa moved in with a couple down the street who paid for her education, and Jobs did not reimburse them for years.
Lisa Brennan-Jobs Lisa's relationship with Jobs remained unstable into adulthood, leading to long periods during which they did not speak to each other. But Lisa was at her father's bedside when Jobs died at his Palo Alto home on October 5, 2011, at age 56.
In January 2014, Brennan wrote to Lauren Powell ordered letter, in which she urged her, given the large inheritance, to do what her deceased husband did not want to do. “Your loyalty to Steve does not mean loyalty to his hatred,” Brennan wrote. “…I just never deserved years of poverty….”
“You are in a position to help me without harming your own life situation and the children… It can be done very quietly and legally.”
Jobs left his daughter an inheritance of several million dollars, some of which Lisa used to support her mother. But Brennan says she never got a response to her email from Lauren Powell Jobs.
She ended her request to the widow of Steve Jobs this way: “This is embarrassing for many reasons, but I want you to know that I deeply appreciate what you went through during all the years of Steve's illness and then his death. I know you loved him very much. Truth be told, so am I."
On a farm in Oregon on May 17, 1978, when her mother Chrisanne Brennan and Steve Jobs were both 23 years old. Jobs was not present at the birth, and saw his daughter for the first time only a few days later. “This is not my child,” he told all the inhabitants of the farm, despite the fact that the newborn had dark hair and a noticeable nose, just like the founder.
Chrisanne and Steve chose the name for their daughter together, after which Jobs finally stopped helping the family. Lisa recalls that until she was two years old, her mother worked part-time as a cleaner and waitress, while the girl was in kindergarten at the church.
In 1980, Chrisanne Brennan decided to demand child support to raise her daughter and went to court.
In response, Steve Jobs refused to acknowledge paternity, swore that he was infertile, and even pointed to another person who allegedly was Lisa's real dad.
The girl had to do a DNA test, which showed the highest possible result at that time - 94.4%. The court ruled that Jobs would have to pay $385 a month in child support (he personally decided to increase the amount to $500), as well as cover medical expenses until the child is 18 years old.
The court decided to close the case on December 8, 1980. After just four days of action Apple appeared on the market, and literally overnight the fortune increased to $ 200 million.
When Lisa was three years old, Steve Jobs came to see her. When the girl asked who he was, the businessman replied: “I am your father. One of the most important people in your life".
childhood trauma
After judgment in favor of the Brennans, Jobs began visiting Lisa and her mother once a month. As soon as the girl was seven years old, she began to notice huge holes in her father's jeans, which the millionaire did not pay attention to. Although Lisa Brennan-Jobs hardly spoke to her dad during his visits, she was secretly proud of him.
“I have a secret. My dad is Steve Jobs,” Lisa told one of her school friends, who responded with a legitimate question: “Who is this?”.
In response, Lisa talked about the fact that he is famous and is the inventor of a personal computer, which he named after her - Apple Lisa.
The girl did not even doubt that the computer was really named after her, but decided to clarify this fact with Jobs himself. “Listen, that computer, Lisa. Did you name him after me?" she asked one of the evenings they spent together. “No,” Steve Jobs replied sharply, “sorry, baby.”
Once they were driving together in a black Porsche convertible that Jobs was rumored to change frequently. Lisa asked if she could get the car when he got tired of it.
"It's out of the question," the businessman replied sullenly.
They reached the house, Jobs once again turned to his daughter and repeated: “You will not get anything. Understood? Nothing. You won't get anything."
Lisa Brennan-Jobs still doesn't know what it was about, a convertible or something more, but these words of her father hurt her to the core.
When Lisa was 27, Jobs invited her on a cruise with his wife, Lauren Powell-Jobs, and children from his second marriage. During their trip, they stayed at the villa of U2 leader Bono, who invited them to stay for dinner. During the meal, Bono asked if Jobs really named his first computer after his first daughter.
“Yes, that’s how it was,” Jobs replied after a moment’s hesitation.
In the last years of Steve Jobs's life, Lisa often came to his house. She recalls that during her visits she often stole small things - powder, toothpaste, pillowcases, ballet flats - and took them out of the house. She could not explain in any way these bouts of kleptomania, which arose only in her father's mansion.
Jobs died on October 5, 2011 from pancreatic cancer when Lisa was 33 years old. He paid for her education at, where the girl received an education in the field of journalism. Currently, she works by profession and publishes in major American magazines. Lisa Brennan-Jobs does not maintain accounts in in social networks and tries to avoid unnecessary attention to his person.
The book with new details will be released in September.
In early September 2018, the memoirs of Lisa Brennan-Jobs, the 40-year-old daughter of the head of Steve's Apple Jobs, who died of pancreatic cancer seven years ago, writes Business Insider.
According to her, Steve Jobs was a scary person and behaved like an asshole.
And perhaps this was exacerbated by the fact that his behavior was tolerated by his wife, colleagues and business partners.
Some of Jobs' co-workers recount instances where Steve lashed out at employees over minor issues and subsequently fired them.
Among the most famous examples are the following: Steve fired an employee who dared to enter the elevator with him at Apple headquarters; Steve fired the assistant who brought him mineral water wrong brand; at one of the interviews, Jobs did not hire potential employee calling him a virgin.
Father reluctantly.
Articles and books about Steve Jobs have already noted that Jobs initially denied that he was the father of Lisa Brennan-Jobs. Her mother, Chrisanne Brennan, had to live on welfare and work as a cleaner until a DNA test proved his paternity and the court forced him to pay child support.
An amount of $385 per month was determined, which was increased to $500. Payments were to be accrued until the age of 18. The court considered the case and on December 8, 1980, the process was closed (the father's lawyers insisted on this, in every possible way urging the trial).
And four days later, Apple entered the market valuable papers, and my father's fortune was estimated at $200 million.
He also denied for many years that the Apple Lisa computer, which was introduced before the Macintosh, was named after his daughter.
us.24h.
Lisa Brennan-Jobs' book adds new details about how badly her father behaved.
In her early childhood, they rarely saw each other, even after the recognition of his paternity.
time
“In high school, she moved in with her father and stepmother because her mother began financial difficulties and there were outbursts of violence. Jobs did not know how to behave with his daughter: he completely ignored her, then he tried to establish complete control over her life. In addition, he forbade her to see her mother, although she had previously been the main figure in her life.
"We are cold people."
The girl was lonely in her father's house, and she once asked her father and stepmother to wish her good night before going to bed. Rather than comply with such a simple request, Lisa's stepmother Lauren Powell-Jobs replied, "We are cold people."
According to Lisa, several times her father behaved indecently. For example, Jobs forced her to be present at the sex scene: he caressed his wife's breasts and thighs and moaned theatrically.
Lisa wanted to leave, but her father said that she should see this "family moment". She didn't see it as a sexual threat, but she felt uncomfortable. He repeatedly told her that she would "get nothing" from his wealth, that she smelled bad (in the end, Lisa still received the inheritance).
Jobs often changed cars, and only because he found a scratch on them.
One day the girl decided to ask:
"Can I take it when you don't need it anymore," I asked as we drove up the winding road to his house after another drive. Take what?” asked the father. This car. Your Porsche, I was sure that during the trip we definitely scratched it. Definitely not,” my father said with such a sour expression that I immediately knew that I had made a mistake.”
When the girl began to spend a lot of time at school, as she studied in the opera club and ran for the role of class president, Jobs was very upset. "You're a fucking family member. You are never around. This will not work, and if you want to be part of the family, you must be on time, ”said the head of Apple.
At one point, family friends even took Lisa in and helped her pay for college."
These are just excerpts from the book, which goes on sale September 4th, so the full picture isn't there yet. And, of course, these are the memories of one person with all his emotional baggage and prejudices. Jobs' widow Lauren Powell-Jobs said in a statement that the book is "very different from our memories of those times." But it was she who allowed Jobs to be cruel to his own daughter.
Stern leader or effective asshole?
But in his book, Brennan-Jobs recalls these incidents, not to condemn Jobs, but to forgive him and move on.
This book debunks the image of a leader who was sometimes harsh to achieve his goals and reveals to the world a cruel man who succeeded because the people around him endured and agreed to this horror. 
guides
Yes, Jobs created thousands of jobs and helped create thousands more. He also made many people inside and outside the company very rich. Undoubtedly his role in the creation of some of the most remarkable products of the last 50 years - the iPhone, Mac, iPad, iPod and the original Apple computers.
Genius is the pinnacle of practical intuition. Jean Cocteau
Perhaps similar products could and would have been created without him. But there's no denying that he has played a leading role in shaping how billions of people interact with technology.
Of course, even these accomplishments are interspersed with less commendable ones, such as his tight control over Apple's outsourcing and tax avoidance efforts.
YouTube / AllThingsD
And that's not to mention his antics during his first time at Apple, like how he tried to hook up then-CEO John Scully and refused to grant stock options to an early Apple employee.
Did his success in business outweigh the cruelty with which he treated others? It's hard to judge. But genius rarely goes hand in hand with kindness.
40-year-old Lisa Brennan-Jobs (Lisa Nicole Brennan-Jobs) is the eldest daughter of Apple founder Steve Jobs. The woman wrote memoirs in which she told what kind of father the famous innovator was. The book will be released in early September, and now Vanity Fair has published an excerpt from it.
twitter.com/vivek_gkrishnan
Recall that Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011 from pancreatic cancer. He was 56 years old. Until the programmer's death, the relationship between him and his daughter remained complicated and strained.
Steve Jobs and Chris Brennan, Lisa's mother, met in 1972 when they were both attending a university in California. The couple did not part for many years, but when Chris became pregnant, Jobs left her and said that this was not his child. The businessman did not participate in the life of his daughter for a long time and refused to pay alimony. For two years, Chris supported herself and her daughter by working as a waitress and cleaner. Made at the insistence of the prosecutor in 1979, a DNA test proved the paternity of Jobs, but Steve sued his former family for a long time, proving that he could not have children. Jobs later married Lauryn Powell and they had three children.
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In 1983, billionaire Steve Jobs started paying $500 alimony to Lisa. At the same time, he stated to interested journalists that "28% of the male population of the States could be fathers."
As a youth, it seemed to Lisa that she and her mother "did not fit the story of greatness and incredible dignity that he wanted for himself."
Once a girl during one of her rare meetings with her father asked him if he could give her one of his Porsches. She knew that her father bought a new car because of the slightest scratch on the old one, and she wanted to know if it was possible to take the one she didn't need. “You won't get anything. Understand? You won’t get anything from me,” Jobs replied to his daughter.
Fotobank/Getty Images
Over time, the relationship of the maturing daughter and the aging father began to improve. Jobs paid for Lisa's Harvard journalism education, but he was still cold to her. Despite this, during her father's illness, Liza constantly visited him at home. “I no longer believed in the possibility of a great reconciliation, as happens in the movies, but I continued to come,” she recalls. In the book, Lisa admitted that she managed to hug her father in last days his life.
He was, to put it mildly, an unpleasant person. Numerous memories tell of his cruelty, rudeness and stinginess towards employees, business partners and even family members. But even against this background, the new book by Steve's daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, called Small Fry ("Small fry") is really surprising.
In his autobiography, released on September 4, Jobs the father appears not just as a selfish person. No, take it higher - after reading this book, it's easy to come to the conclusion that the creator of the iPhone, iPad and Mac is just an enchanting beast.
We know that Jobs denied paternity for many years and did not begin paying child support until Steve was forced by the US authorities to take a DNA test in 1980 - and then only by court order. We also know that the Apple founder for a long time refused to acknowledge the fact that he named the Lisa computer (the predecessor of the Macintosh) in honor of his daughter (officially, the abbreviation LISA stood for: Local Integrated Systems Architecture "local integrated systems architecture") - and could not lie only when, in the presence of Lisa, he was asked about it by the famous U2 lead singer Bono.
But the Brennan-Jobs book adds many new touches to the portrait of "Steve Jobs - m ... k." He hardly saw her when Lisa was a small child (even after paternity was established), and later avoided her for a long time and refused to pay alimony. Although Apple was already making him a lot of money by then, Lisa and her mom, Chrisann, lived in poverty, surviving from social security benefits, her mom's low-paying part-time job, and the kindness of others. And when he did have to pay alimony, Jobs arranged everything so that he could resolve the issues in court a few days before Apple went public and he himself became a multimillionaire.
Steve Jobs with daughter Lisa
When Jobs began to pay more attention to his daughter, Chrisanne quickly abandoned the idea of leaving them alone. Why? One day, Steve came to visit then nine-year-old Lisa and began to ask her about her sexual tastes and preferences. It's nine years old...
Then, when the now-teenaged Brennan-Jobs moved in with her father, he forbade her from seeing Chrisann—the only person she was truly close to at the time—for six months. After moving in, the girl told Steve and her adoptive mother, Lauren Powell-Jobs, that she felt very lonely, and asked to come and wish her good night before bed. But instead of entering into her position and doing it - very simple! - a request, Lauren only said: "We are cold people."
Lisa Brennan-Jobs
One more thing! Once, when Jobs wanted to have sex with his wife and began to touch her breasts and thighs, while making a specific sigh, he demanded that Lisa stay in the room. Steve justified this by the need to strengthen relations in new family. Also, her father regularly did not give her pocket money, said that she would not receive a cent from his inheritance - and even refused to install a heater in her room.
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