Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ powerful memoir sparks backlash against Apple co-founder father

THE late Apple billionaire has been slammed as an “abuser” as more horrifying allegations of neglect and cruelty come to light.

APPLE genius Steve Jobs has been branded as a perpetrator of “child abuse” as more explosive details from his daughter’s new memoir emerge.

In her soon-to-be-released book Small Fry, Job’s firstborn, illegitimate daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs describes years of cruelty and neglect at the hands of her famous father.

Their relationship was fraught from the get-go.

While Jobs helped name his baby daughter, it took legal action for him to acknowledge paternity, and for the first two years of Ms Brennan-Jobs’ life, he refused to support her and her mother Chrisann.

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It was only after the now 40-year-old took a DNA test that her father was forced to shell out a measly $675 a month plus medical insurance.

Meanwhile, Apple had gone public — and overnight, Jobs was worth $200 million while his child and her mother relied on welfare, menial jobs and charity to keep a roof over their heads.

Steve Jobs with his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs in 1986. Supplied

But far more disturbing details of their relationship are covered in depth in Small Fry.

In one example, Ms Brennan-Jobs explained how her father had simulated sex acts on her stepmother, Laurene Powell Jobs, in front of her when she was just a child.

An excerpt in the New York Times describes Jobs’ “pulling her in to a kiss, moving his hand closer to her breasts” and “moaning theatrically”.

When an uncomfortable Ms Brennan-Jobs tried to leave the room, her father stopped her.

“‘Hey Lis,’ he said. ‘Stay here. We’re having a family moment. It’s important that you try to be part of this family.’”

So his daughter “sat still, looking away as he moaned and undulated”.

That worrying incident echoes another detailed by Ms Brennan-Jobs’ mother Chrisann in her own 2013 memoir, A Bite in the Apple.

Lisa Brennan-Jobs has described her father’s strange behaviour as “awkward”. Picture: Twitter

In it, Ms Brennan describes how she once asked her former partner to babysit their daughter, then aged nine — but when she came home early, she found him “teasing her non-stop about her sexual aspirations,” “ridiculing her with sexual innuendos,” and “joking about bedroom antics between Lisa and this or that guy.”

While Ms Brennan made it clear Jobs was not a “sexual predator of children”, it was enough for her to make sure there was always a “chaperone” present during father-daughter times from then on.

But despite those distressing examples, Ms Brennan-Jobs insists she never felt “threatened” by her father, explaining his behaviour to the New York Times as “just awkward”.

Chrisann Brennan, pictured with a young Lisa Brennan-Jobs, made disturbing revelations of her own in Bite in the Apple. Picture: Supplied

And even in the face of other anecdotes of her father’s meanness — a neighbour was once so concerned about a teenage Ms Brennan-Jobs they moved her into their own home, and paid for her college fees — she insists she loves and forgives her dad.

“It’s a strange thing to write a devastating memoir with damning details but demand that these things are not, in fact, damning at all. Yet that’s exactly what Ms. Brennan-Jobs has done …” the New York Times piece states.

Lisa Brennan-Jobs remembers her father being inappropriate around her stepmother, Laurene Powell. Picture: Alexandra Wyman/Getty Images

But while Ms Brennan-Jobs has tried to explain away her father’s behaviour, members of the public have been less forgiving.

As more and more troubling anecdotes are revealed, scores of people have taken to social media to condemn Jobs’ as a cruel child abuser.

This is a staggering tale of child abuse, and the fact that the author doesn't recognize the it and the reporter treats it as mercurial cruelness rather than the archetypal pattern of abuse is the saddest part of all.https://t.co/Hx1KuaKJsx

— Jacob Bacharach (@jakebackpack) August 23, 2018

As a survivor of child abuse, this hurts my heart. The memoir by Steve Jobs' daughter makes clear he was a truly rotten person whose bad behavior was repeatedly enabled by those around him (AAPL) https://t.co/j2erH2mCg5

— Jess Jones (@mommachonga) August 27, 2018

It's certainly a confirmation that Steve Jobs was an even bigger asshole than we knew he was, and I think some of what's described here is child abuse. His daughter has forgiven him and that's fine, but asking everyone to see him as she does...hard pass.https://t.co/lavaqWHEzj

— FP 🗽 (@FlyingPeanuts) August 23, 2018

However, Ms Powell Jobs, her children and Jobs’s sister, Mona Simpson, have hit back at many of the claims made by Ms Brennan-Jobs via a statement issued to The New York Times.

“Lisa is part of our family, so it was with sadness that we read her book, which differs dramatically from our memories of those times,” the statement reads.

“The portrayal of Steve is not the husband and father we knew. Steve loved Lisa, and he regretted that he was not the father he should have been during her early childhood.

“It was a great comfort to Steve to have Lisa home with all of us during the last days of his life, and we are all grateful for the years we spent together as a family.”

With the publication of the book just days away, time will tell what other family secrets could come to light.

Small Fry is just days away from being released. Picture: Supplied

Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs will be published on September 4, 2018, by Grove Press.

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