Steve Jobs's high school girlfriend to publish memoir

Video: Biographer: Jobs regretted delaying surgery

Open in new window

2. Closed captioning of: Biographer: Jobs regretted delaying surgery

   Advertise | AdChoices

   >>> authorized biography of steve jobs is about to hit stores a little more than two weeks after his death, and it includes some fascinating details about his life and his struggle with pancreatic cancer . natalie 's back with the details on that. natalie , good morning.

   >> good morning again, savannah. steve jobs was speaking with his biographer right up until a few weeks before he died. and while the book doesn't come out until monday, it is already raising questions about the choices jobs made regarding his own medical care . by all accounts, it was an extraordinary life.

   >> today, apple is going to reinvent the phone.

   >> reporter: steve jobs , the college dropout and creative genius behind apple's ipod, iphone and ipad.

   >> your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

   >> reporter: now an authorized biography, " steve jobs " by walter isaacson , sheds new light on jobs' deadly battle with cancer. he was diagnosed in 2003 with pancreatic cancer , something he spoke about in his 2005 address to stanford university graduates.

   >> turned out to be a rare form of pancreatic cancer that's curable with surgery. i had the surgery, and thankfully, i'm fine now.

   >> reporter: but as isaacson recounts in an interview to be broadcast this sunday on "60 minutes," jobs resisted getting the surgery for nine months.

   >> he tries to treat it with diet, he goes to spiritualists, he goes through various ways of doing it macrobiotically, and he doesn't get an operation.

   >> why doesn't he get it operated on immediately?

   >> you know, i've asked him that, and he said "i didn't want my body to be opened, i didn't want to be violated in that way."

   >> reporter: isaacson says jobs later regretted his choice to postpone surgery, a decision questioned by some in the medical community.

   >> there is an extreme risk in waiting to remove any pancreatic malignant tumor, whether it be one month, nine months, whether it be slow-growing or fast-growing.

   >> reporter: other revelations in the book -- jobs says he was bullied as a child, stopped going to church at age 13 and eventually studied buddhism. also, jobs was adopted and had unknowingly met his birth father, who ran a restaurant that jobs sometimes ate at. when jobs finally made the connection, he had no interest in a relationship, telling isaacson , "i was a wealthy man by then and i didn't trust him not to try to blackmail me or go to the press about it."

   >> building a company is really hard.

   >> reporter: commenting on his biggest rival, bill gates , jobs said "bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented ying. he just shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas." when jobs met with president obama last fall, he reportedly told him, "you're headed for a one-term presidency." despite his frustrations, he offered to help obama's 2012 campaign, something he had done in 2008 , but he had become annoyed when obama strategist david axelrod wasn't toeshlly deferential. and jobs was interviewed by isaacson 20 times for the book. he reportedly told him no subject was off limits. friends and family were also interviewed, and apparently, jobs had no editorial control here.

   >> it's going to be a fascinating read.

   >> going to be a great read.

   >> natalie , thank you.

   Show transcript