The couple split soon after Brennan became pregnant, and when she gave birth to a daughter, Lisa, in May of 1978, Jobs was having none of it. For two full years, he vehemently denied that he was her father, even going so far as to submit sworn court documents that he couldn't possibly be the father because he was infertile (he was not). Even though Jobs was decades away from becoming one of the world's richest people, back in 1978, he was still a millionaire. Allowing your first daughter to be raised on welfare and a waitress income while you're wearing only the lushest polyester and jamming to the finest eight-track polyphonic stereo that money can buy is a dick move, Apple Man.
St. Martin's Press
All while using her name to sell the single shittiest thing he ever made.
After a lawsuit forced him into a paternity test, Jobs had to reimburse the state for its welfare costs to the tune of 500 bucks a month -- which, when you are Steve Jobs, is the financial equivalent of a mouse fart. He eventually struck up a relationship with Lisa in 1986 (when she was eight years old, and only after being sued into admitting he was her father), supporting her on and off throughout the years. In her own words, "Growing up I'd been very poor, very rich, and sometimes in the middle." For her part, Lisa's mother tried to get $25 million out of Jobs with the most polite extortion letter ever written:
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