Chrisann Brennan

Brennan was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1954, one of four daughters of James Richard Brennan and Virginia Lavern Rickey. Chrisann was named after the flower chrysanthemum. Her father worked for Sylvania and the family lived in a number of places including Colorado Springs and Nebraska. They eventually settled in Sunnyvale, California. Her parents divorced after their move to Buffalo, New York. Brennan attended Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, where she met Steve Jobs during the early months of 1972. ==Relationship with Steve Jobs==

Brennan and Jobs's relationship began in 1972 while in high school. Brennan remained involved with Jobs while he was at Reed College. In mid-1973, Jobs moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area. They remained involved with each other while continuing to see other people. After Brennan graduated from high school, she went to visit Jobs at the All One Farm, a commune in Oregon. Brennan was deeply influenced by the experience of meeting and working with the people that she met there. In early 1975, Brennan became involved with a Zen Buddhist community in Los Altos. It was through this community she would meet and work with the Zen master Kobun. Brennan was also deeply involved in her art program at Foothill College, where she studied under Gordon Holler. At this time, she fell in love with Greg Calhoun (Jobs' former Reed classmate) who had come to visit from the All One Farm. Brennan moved to the All One Farm and lived with Calhoun. They eventually moved back to the Bay Area, then traveled for a year through India, though their relationship ended by the time she returned to the United States. ==Apple (1977)==

After her return from India, Brennan visited Jobs, whom she now considered just a friend, at his parents' home, where he was still living. It was during this period that Jobs and Brennan fell in love again, as Brennan noted changes in him that she attributes to Kōbun Chino Otogawa, whom she was also still following. It was also at this time that Jobs displayed a prototype Apple computer for Brennan and his parents in their living room. Brennan notes a shift in this time period, where the two main influences on Jobs were Apple and Kōbun. By early 1977, she and Jobs would spend time together at her home at Duveneck Ranch in Los Altos, which served as a hostel and environmental education center. Brennan also worked there as a teacher for inner-city children who came to learn about the farm. She also took art classes at nearby De Anza College. Brennan's relationship with Jobs was deteriorating as his position with Apple grew and she began to consider ending the relationship. In October 1977, Brennan was approached by Apple employee #5, Rod Holt, who asked her to take "a paid apprenticeship designing blueprints for the Apples". Both Holt and Jobs felt that it would be a good position for her, given her artistic abilities. Brennan's decision, however, was overshadowed by the fact that she realized she was pregnant and that Jobs was the father. It took her a few days to tell Jobs, whose face, according to Brennan "turned ugly" at the news. According to Brennan, at the beginning of her third trimester, Jobs said to her: "I never wanted to ask that you get an abortion. I just didn't want to do that." He also refused to discuss the pregnancy with her. Brennan, herself, felt confused about what to do. She was estranged from her mother and afraid to discuss the matter with her father. She also did not feel comfortable with the idea of having an abortion. She chose instead to discuss the matter with Kōbun, who encouraged her to have and keep the baby as he would lend his support. Meanwhile, Holt was waiting for her decision on the internship. Brennan states that Jobs continued to encourage her to take the internship, stating that she could "be pregnant and work at Apple, you can take the job. I don't get what the problem is." Brennan however notes that she "felt so ashamed: the thought of my growing belly in the professional environment at Apple, with the child being his, while he was unpredictable, in turn being punishing and sentimentally ridiculous. I could not have endured it." Brennan thus turned down the internship and decided to leave Apple. She states that Jobs told her "If you give up this baby for adoption, you will be sorry" and "I am never going to help you". ==Lisa Brennan-Jobs==

Now alone, Brennan was on welfare and cleaning houses to earn money. She would sometimes ask Jobs for money but he always refused. Brennan hid her pregnancy for as long as she could, living in a variety of homes, and continuing her work with Zen meditation. At the same time, according to Brennan, Jobs "started to seed people with the notion that I slept around and he was infertile, which meant that this could not be his child". A few weeks before she was due, Brennan was invited to have her baby at the All One Farm in Oregon and Brennan accepted the offer. Jobs did not attend the birth. He eventually visited after he was contacted by Robert Friedland, their mutual friend and owner of the All One Farm. While distant, Jobs worked with Brennan on a name for the baby. She suggested the name "Lisa" and says that Jobs was very attached to the name "Lisa" while he "was also publicly denying paternity". She would discover later that Jobs was preparing to unveil a new kind of computer that he wanted to give a female name. She states that she never gave him permission to use the baby's name for a computer and he hid the plans from her. Jobs also worked with his team to come up with the phrase, "Local Integrated System Architecture" as an alternative explanation for the Apple Lisa (decades later, however, Jobs admitted to his biographer Walter Isaacson that "obviously, it was named for my daughter"). Brennan explored adoption both before and after Lisa's birth but ultimately decided to become a single parent. Once, while staying with friends in the Bay Area, Jobs stopped by to see her. Brennan states that they went for a walk when Jobs said to her, "I am really sorry. I'll be back, this thing with Apple will be over when I'm about thirty. I am really, really sorry." Around the same time, she met with Kōbun who distanced himself from her and did not fulfill his promise to help her once the baby was born. When Lisa was a baby and Jobs continued to deny paternity, a DNA paternity test confirmed that he was Lisa's father. He was required to give Brennan $385 a month and return the money she had received from welfare. Jobs gave her $500 a month at the time when Apple went public, and Jobs became a millionaire. Brennan worked as a waitress in Palo Alto. Later, Brennan agreed to give an interview with Michael Moritz for Time magazine. It would be for its 1982 Person of the Year special (released on January 3, 1983). She decided to be honest about her relationship with Jobs. The Time magazine issue had a lifelong impact on Brennan. Rather than give Jobs the "Person of the Year" award, Time offered the award of "Machine of the Year: The Computer Moves In". In the issue, Jobs questioned the reliability of the paternity test (which stated that the "probability of paternity for Jobs, Steven ... is 94.1%"). Jobs responded by arguing that "28% of the male population of the United States could be the father". ==Painter==

During the late 1980s, Brennan decided to finish her formal education and began to study at the California College of Arts and Crafts (where she was able to transfer her units from Foothill College). and Packard Children's Hospital. Brennan stated that painting is "a language for me. Letters are form, and paintings are documents for information. When I mix those two, I'm happy. It gets me out of the normal way, which is what I want to do." ==Works==

• Brennan, Chrisann. The Bite in the Apple. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2013. • The Brennan piece is a sidebar (scroll down the page) of the main article: "The Steve Jobs Nobody Knew". ==Portrayals==

Brennan was portrayed by Gema Zamprogna in Pirates of Silicon Valley, by Ahna O'Reilly in Jobs, and by Katherine Waterston in Steve Jobs. Brennan is a main character in the opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. ==References==