How Joanna Hoffman ended up as a mom-of-two in a $7m Silicon Valley home
She is the woman who was Steve Jobs' closest confidant at Apple before retiring in 1995 to raise her sons – and inspired the role that could win Kate Winslet an Oscar on Sunday night.
Now Joanna Hoffman, 60, has exclusively revealed that she is throwing her weight behind the 40-year-old British actress she describes as a 'force of nature' as she battles it out for the film industry's top prize.
Speaking to Daily Mail Online at her sprawling Palo Alto home, she said: 'Kate is wonderful – she's a real force of nature.
'I'm pleased for her [that she was nominated] and I hope she does well. It's a competitive field out there.'
Winslet faces stiff competition from Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rooney Mara, Rachel McAdams and Alicia Vikander at this weekend's awards' ceremony but remains the front runner after taking home a BAFTA for her role in Steve Jobs earlier this month.
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Doppelganger: Former Apple exec Joanna Hoffman gives kudos to Kate Winslet for her performance as...Joanna Hoffman in the Oscar nominated Jobs
Leaving Whole Foods in Palo Alto, Hoffman says she's an American now, even though she spent her early years in the Soviet Union and Poland
Hoffman and her family lives in a $7 million home in Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley
The film, which charts three main events in the Apple boss' life between 1984 and 1998, stars Michael Fassbender, 38, as Jobs – with Winslet in support as his right-hand woman Hoffman.
It was a role she battled hard to win – which, says Winslet, left her 'nervous' before her first meeting with Hoffman.
'Joanna wasn't just a hotheaded Eastern European woman screeching at Jobs,' Winslet later explained in an interview with Deadline.
It was at NeXT that Jobs had the eureka moment that led to the invention of the app store – an innovation that helped convince Apple bosses to buy the company in 1997
'She was a sister, his friend, and a little bit of a mother. Her recognition of who he was as a person and her acceptance and love of him, warts and all, was an admirable quality.
'Joanna came into the rehearsal space and I got to spend time with her. I didn't want to try and do an impersonation, but I wanted to honor the essence of her spirit.'
It was clearly a meeting of minds, with Winslet's sympathetic portrayal of Hoffman garnering her rave reviews, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and now potentially an Oscar as well.
But while Winslet's life continues to be a glittering whirlwind of red carpets, parties and grueling film shoots, the peaceful life of the real Hoffman couldn't be more different.
Born in July 1955 to Polish-Jewish film director Jerzy Hoffman and his Armenian wife Marlene, she spent her early years in the Soviet Union and was raised largely by her mother after her parents' relationship broke down.
Aged 10, she moved to the Polish capital Warsaw to live with her father but was living in America with her mother by the age of 14.
With her mother and step-father, she set up home in Buffalo, New York and was enrolled in a local school, where she quickly picked up English and, by all accounts, excelled.
Joanna's husband Frenchman Alain Rossman, 59, is also an alumnus of the Apple Mac project and the couple met and married while working together
Petite, dark-haired Hoffman, who still speaks with a slight Polish accent, told Daily Mail Online: 'I've been here since I was 14 and I'm definitely an American now.'
Like her eldest son Jeremy, now 24, Hoffman enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after graduating from high school and pursued a bachelor's degree in humanities and science – specifically, anthropology, physics and linguistics.
Afterwards, she began a doctorate in archaeology at the University of Chicago and was due to travel to Iran for a dig in 1979 before being turned back because of the Iranian revolution.
It was to prove a turning point: the following year, she was persuaded to attend a lecture at the Palo Alto Research Center [PARC] and, while there, was introduced to Jef Raskin – founder of Apple's Mackintosh project.
The two hit it off and, by October 1980, Hoffman had become part of Raskin's team and the woman in charge of marketing the project.
It was through her work on the Apple Mac that Hoffman first encountered Jobs, with the two eventually developing a close bond.
'I loved spending time with her because she shared stories with me about her time with Steve and her relationship with Steve that a lot of people just don't know anything about,' Winslet told Entertainment Weekly in October.
Hoffman's son Jeremy (right) followed his mother to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied Comparative Media Studies and Mathematics with Computer Science. Younger son Gabriel (left) opted to follow in his father's footsteps and is currently taking a degree in Computer Science at Stanford
'And I actually came to understand a much softer, gentler side of Steve Jobs, a side of Steve Jobs who I think was kept sort of hidden away and private to those people or to his family.'
Indeed, Jobs and Hoffman became so close that Hoffman was one of five employees poached by Jobs when he left Apple in 1985 to start NeXT – most famous for producing the computer used by Sir Tim Berners-Lee to invent the world wide web in 1990.
It was also at NeXT that Jobs had the first had the idea that led to the invention of the app store – an innovation that helped convince Apple bosses to buy the company in 1997.
But by then, Hoffman was long gone – first to a technology company called General Magic, where she was vice president of marketing, and then to a quiet life as a homemaker.
Winslet faces stiff competition from Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rooney Mara, Rachel McAdams and Alicia Vikander at this weekend's awards' ceremony
Her husband, Frenchman Alain Rossmann, 59, is also an alumnus of the Apple Mac project and the couple met and married while working together.
In 1991, Hoffman gave birth to their eldest son Jeremy before going on to have a second son, Gabriel, and retired in 1995 to spend more time with her boys.
After she left General Magic, the couple moved their young family into a large colonial-style home on a quiet bougainvillea-lined Palo Alto street where they still live today.
Both boys were educated at the nearby International School of the Peninsula, an establishment that specializes in languages, before going on to college.
Jeremy followed his mother to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied Comparative Media Studies and Mathematics with Computer Science.
Younger son Gabriel opted to follow in his father's footsteps and is currently taking a degree in Computer Science at Stanford – conveniently located close to home in Palo Alto.
Rossmann, who left his role at Apple in 1986, has continued his career in technology – setting up no fewer than nine companies, including the latest, Machinify, which combines cognitive computing with analytics.
On his Linkedin profile, he lists a wide range of interests, among them economic empowerment, poverty alleviation, politics and human rights, plus an even longer list of patents.
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ShareSon Jeremy has also begun a company, co-founding Make School - a San Francisco based institution specializing in teaching students how to code and build iPhone apps and games.
Meanwhile, for Hoffmann herself, the quiet life continues; with coffees with friends and trips to pick up fresh baguettes at the nearby branch of Whole Foods the order of the day.
She dislikes attention and told Daily Mail Online that she prefers not to give interviews. She does, however, have views on more than just Kate Winslet and her Oscar hopes.
'This is a beautiful country in terms of nature but the politics here are a bit crazy,' she said. 'In Poland? Well there, politics are crazy too.'
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