Sam Wakoba

Steve Jobs was worth over $200 million at 25. He paid his daughter $385 a month. Her mother cleaned houses and went on welfare. The county had to sue him to pay it back. In the video below, his daughter Lisa talks about growing up with him. Jobs was 23 when she was born. He helped pick her name. Then he denied she was his. A DNA test said he was the father. He told Time magazine that 28% of men in America could be. The same year, Apple went public. He became one of the richest young men in the country. He named a computer after her: the Apple Lisa. For years, he refused to admit it. One day her mother was on the phone with him, sobbing, begging for money. Lisa, a little girl, took the phone and said: “Just give her some money.” Then she hung up. Another time, her mother asked him for a house. He said yes. Then he bought one for himself. At 14 she moved in with him. His condition: she couldn’t see her mother for six months. Years later, he was dying of cancer. She sat by his bed. “The thing he kept on saying is, ‘I owe you one, and I’m so sorry.’” Did she forgive him? “I think not at the time.” “In many ways, yes.” When her memoir came out, his widow and his sister released a statement: her story “differs dramatically from our memories.” The case for Jobs: he was young, he came back, and he tried to make it right before he died. The case for Lisa: a billionaire’s daughter shouldn’t have grown up on welfare. He named a computer after her. He wouldn’t say she was his. On his deathbed, he said, “I owe you one.” Was “I’m sorry” enough, or did it come 30 years too late?