Steve’s Firstborn: Lisa Brennan-Jobs

I am a sucker for father daughter stories and recently I have been captivated when I stumbled upon an article about Steve Jobs’ eldest child. I had not heard about Lisa Brennan till today. She is a writer and just 33 years old, born on 17 May 1978. Here’s her blog, but sadly no more posts after 12 September 2009. The last post is about something close to my heart as well – coffee.


{via}

Lisa is absolutely stunning and a spitting image of her dad. Surprising to think that he denied paternity till she was 2 years old. Perhaps it was because he was just a 23 year old kid then. Ironically the Apple legend’s own biological father put him up for adoption. Steve in turn looks like his biological father Abdulfattah Jandali.


{via fandaily}

Here’s what Lisa revealed about her relationship with her dad in an article in Vogue, also posted on her blog:

In California, my mother had raised me mostly alone. We didn’t have many things, but she is warm and we were happy. We moved a lot. We rented. My father was rich and renowned and later, as I got to know him, went on vacations with him, and then lived with him for a few years, I saw another, more glamorous world. The two sides didn’t mix, and I missed one when I had the other.{via Lisa’s blog}

Steve later revealed his regrets about his earlier actions regarding his daughter:

“I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of,” he said in a statement this year while promoting his authorized biography, “such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that.”
{via People}

Steve’s authorized biography which is did for his children is one book I would love to read. I think it’s wonderful that he did this as children are often left with loads of answered questions. I too wish that my own beloved father had written a book so that I could know, or at least have some of those unanswered questions answered. No matter how old you are, it is something I am sure that plagues most of us who lose our dads.

“I wanted my kids to know me,” Jobs was quoted as saying by Pulitzer Prize nominee Walter Isaacson, when he asked the Apple Inc co-founder why he authorized a tell-all biography after living a private, almost ascetic life.

“I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did,” Jobs told Isaacson in their final interview at Jobs’ home in Palo Alto, California.
{via Reuters}

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Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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4 Responses to Steve’s Firstborn: Lisa Brennan-Jobs

  1. Crystal says:

    In a man who has much to admire, I think his relationship with Lisa is something where he proved his humanity.

    My dad was about the same age when he fathered me, but I’ve never met him nor has he ever acknowledged paternity. I’ve never had contact with him.

    Part of me grew up hating him. Part of me grew up wondering what I’d done wrong that he wouldn’t want me.

    It wasn’t until I was an adult that I could have some empathy for what it might feel like to be a 20-something kid and find out that you were becoming a parent, regardless of what you might choose (like Lisa’s mom, my mom made the choice to keep me). I can’t say I “understand” or am okay with that choice…but I can at least understand a bit better where the impulse to run away or deny the truth comes from.

    I hope they eventually had a better relationship.

    • bookjunkie says:

      Thank you Crystal, for sharing something so very personal.

      I would have a million questions, and I can’t imagine having to go through a childhood with all that pain. Feel for you. I wonder if the same happened to me, whether I could be magnanimous or forgiving enough to feel empathy. But that yearning would have been there constantly.

      I am most riveted by how fiercely protective Steve Jobs was of his family and from some very rare photographs you can see a totally different person…..just a doting dad. I think for Lisa it must have been difficult knowing he had 3 other children after her who never faced the rejection she did. I would have taken that very hard. Sort of make it worse. But I too hope they reconciled.

  2. Cc says:

    My mother and father had me through holy wedlock but my father was absent most of my life. He acknowledge me but basically ignored me most of my life. I can’t blame all my troubles on an absent father but those who have good relationships with dads (girls) do much better in this life. I was with him the last months of his life. We both missed so much. I pray for Lisa that she has peace and a great image of herself. Parents don’t realize the heavy weight they play in their kids lives.

    • bookjunkie says:

      I am so sorry to hear that. Must have been so tough on you.

      Am glad you got to know him in the end but I am sure you must be feelings the yearning to have more time.

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