Laurene Powell Jobs, who was married for 20 years to Apple founder Steve Jobs, is said to have bonded with former Washington DC mayor Adrian Fenty over a shared passion for school reform, after they met at an education conference in 2011.
Their friendship developed into a romance shortly after Adrian Fenty announced he was leaving his wife, sources told the Washington Post.
Laurene Powell Jobs and Adrian Fenty’s relationship is not believed to have been behind the breakup of his 15-year marriage.
Steve Jobs’ widow, who has three children, inherited an estate of about $10 billion when her husband died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56 in October 2011.
Despite being one of the richest women in the U.S, Laurene Powell Jobs, 49, has kept a deliberately low profile as she continues with her charitable work.
In a rare interview in April Laurene Powell Jobs, who was spotted still wearing her diamond wedding ring on holiday in Italy last month, said of her husband: “His private legacy with me and the kids is that of husband and father. And we miss him every day.”
Laurene Powell Jobs is said to have bonded with former Washington DC mayor Adrian Fenty over a shared passion for school reform
As she pushes her charity work, Laurene Powell Jobs has started to increase her public profile.
“She’s been mourning for a year and was grieving for five years before that. Her life was about her family and Steve, but she is now emerging as a potent force on the world stage, and this is only the beginning,” Larry Brilliant, of Skoll Global Threats Fund, told the New York Times earlier this year.
She married Steve Jobs two years after meeting him when he gave a talk to Stanford Business School, where she was a student.
Laurene Powell Jobs’ connection to Adrian Fenty increased after he joined the board of College Track, a non-profit program for students founded by Steve Jobs’ widow, in February last year.
In a statement released at the time she said: “Adrian Fenty is one of our country’s great advocates for education reform. His sense of urgency and record of accomplishment is unparalleled.”
In contrast to the privacy courted by Laurene Powell Jobs, 42-year-old Adrian Fenty has been a public figure since his election as Washington DC mayor in 2006.
Adrian Fenty and his wife Michelle, who have twin sons and a daughter, were often spotted at high profile parties and events in the city.
Since his defeat in 2010 Adrian Fenty has focused on acting as a consultant to education tech companies and his position as special adviser at Andreessen Horowitz, which led to him splitting his time between Washington and Silicon Valley.
Michelle Fenty took a job in Trinidad and Tobago with the Inter-American Development Bank last year, which led to her also splitting her life between two places, according to the Washington Post.
Both Laurene Powell Jobs and Adrian Fenty have declined to comment on speculation about their relationship.
Laurene Powell Jobs – Steve Jobs’ widow – opened up for the first time since her husband’s death speaking about his lasting legacy that inspires her to fulfill her passions in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams on Rock Center that aired Friday night.
Laurene Powell Jobs spoke about how Steve Jobs left both a personal and a private legacy, only one of which she feels comfortable talking about now that he is dead.
“In the public [legacy] we see the products that he created, that he cared so deeply about that changed all of our lives- the way that we function and communicate,” she said.
“What he wanted to do in his life was create tools that allow people to work at the highest level, and I think he did that. So that legacy is beautiful for me to live with.”
Laurene Powell Jobs speaks out for the first time since Steve Jobs’ death on Rock Center
Laurene Powell Jobs, who continues Steve Jobs’ tradition of being notoriously private, agreed to be interviewed because she is working with a documentary filmmaker to promote immigration reform.
As part of the preconditions for the interview, Laurene Powell Jobs made it clear that she would not talk about her famous husband’s death.
She paid a small tribute to her husband of 20 years by praising him as a father and partner.
“His private legacy with me and the kids is that of husband and father, and we miss him every day,” Laurene Powell Jobs said.
Steve Jobs was known for his intense work ethic, and even he admitted that part of the reason why he allowed a biographer to interview him repeatedly before his death was so that his children could get a full portrait of the work he did while away from his family.
In addition to the more than 650-page tome, Laurene Powell Jobs told how the myriad of Apple products that he created also serve as living memorials.
“Having the body of work surrounding us is actually a really beautiful reminder and I find it touching and inspiring for me to make sure that I continue to do what I’m most passionate about and I hope my kids feel the same way,” she said.
That passion has driven Laurene Powell Jobs to work with Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim to create and promote the film The Dream is Now which unveils the plight of students raised in the US who are pushed out of the country because they are undocumented immigrants.
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Steve Jobs, Apple founder died today after a heavy and lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer.
Tributes, led by President Barack Obama, began pouring in within minutes of the company confirming the death of Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind the iPhone, iPad and the iPod at the age of 56.
“We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” read a statement by Apple’s board of directors.
“Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.
“His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”
The Apple Home page has revealed that Steve Jobs had died
The homepage of Apple’s website this evening switched to a full-page image of Jobs with the text, “Steve Jobs 1955-2011”.
Clicking on the image revealed the additional text:
“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being.
“Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor.
“Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”
Apple announced the death of its founder, Steve Jobs on the website
Steve Jobs leaves a wife, a son and two daughters.
Steve Jobs’ relatives also released a statement, which said he “died peacefully today, surrounded by his family”.
“In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve’s illness.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the news of Steve Jobs’s death to Apple employees via e-mail:
“I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.
“We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon.
“No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honour his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.”
In April 2011, Steve Jobs seemed frail sparking speculation he would have to resign
Within minutes of his death being confirmed, tributes to Steve Jobs began flooding the web, led by President Barack Obama, who tweeted:
“Rest in peace, Steve Jobs. From all of us at #Obama2012, thank you for the work you make possible every day – including ours.”
Barack Obama later gave a fuller statement, in which he praised Steve Jobs as a “visionary” who was “bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it”.
“The world has lost a visionary,” Obama said.
“And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.
“Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.
“Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.”
From its earliest beginnings as a personal computer also-ran in a scrappy garage in northern California to its all-conquering development of life-changing gadgets the rise of Apple has been intrinsically linked to Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs holds the Apple II computer in 1977
When Steve Jobs left for eleven years after a row over the company’s direction, Apple’s fortunes dipped.
His return, after a successful stint as head of animation innovators Pixar, marked the start of the company’s relentless drive to become one of America’s biggest and most successful companies.
Steve Jobs’ death comes just six weeks after his poor health led him to stand down as the company’s CEO and his successor, Tim Cook, presented the new generation iPhone yesterday.
The fact that Apple stayed cool as it grew is credited to Steve Jobs’ innovative marketing techniques almost as much as his visionary wizardry.
Even when he announced that he was taking two years off on medical leave, Steve Jobs still kept hold of his CEO title, just as he did on two previous occasions in the past seven years when he needed to take leave from the day-to-day running of the company for health reasons.
At the time, Steve Jobs could barely walk and photographs of him looking gaunt and frail led to reports that he just had weeks to live.
But Steve Jobs fought back and appeared to be relishing proving the doubters wrong by introducing the second-generation iPad and meeting up with President Obama to discuss the future of the tech industry.
Other than his well-rehearsed stage appearances to launch the latest Apple innovation, Steve Jobs always treasured his privacy.
Steve Jobs survived surgery to remove a cancerous pancreatic tumor in 2004 and a liver transplant in 2009.
As CEO, Steve Jobs earned only $1 a year, but he held 5,426 million Apple shares as well as 138 million shares in Disney.
Steve Jobs’ wealth is estimated at more than $5billion.
With his trademark jeans and casual jumper, Steve Jobs became synonymous with the company’s every innovation in recent years, from the iPod through to the iPhone and iPad.
Born in San Francisco, Steve Jobs, who was adopted, dropped out of university after one term and only took his first computer job to raise money to go on a spiritual retreat to India.
Steve Jobs returned a Buddhist with his head shaved and admitted experimenting with LSD, calling his drug-induced experiences ‘one of the two or three most important things’ he had done in his life.
Back in northern California, Steve Jobs started working for computer firm Atari before founding Apple in his garage in 1976 with friends Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne and Mike Makkula.
After a power struggle in 1985, Steve Jobs left the company, only to return eleven years later to launch the company’s extraordinary growth over the past fourteen years.
Steve Jobs introduces the Apple Nano in San Francisco
One of the world’s most famous CEOs, Steve Jobs remained stubbornly private about his personal life, refusing interviews and shielding his wife and their children from public view.
Even when he resigned six weeks ago, he divulged very little, not directly mentioning his cancer as the reason he quit.
“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” Steve Jobs wrote in his letter of resignation.
“Unfortunately, that day has come.”
But that personal life – he was given up at birth for adoption, had an illegitimate child, was romantically linked with movie stars – was full of intrigue for his fan base and Apple consumers.
Steve Jobs and his wife Laurene Powell during Pixar Exhibit Launch at The Museum of Modern Art in New York
Steve Jobs and his wife, Laurene Powell, were married in a small ceremony in Yosemite National Park in 1991, lived in Woodside, California, and had three children: Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve.
Steve Jobs admitted that when he was 23, he had a child out of wedlock with his high school girlfriend, Chris Ann Brennan. Their daughter, Lisa Brennan Jobs, was born in 1978.
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