New biography of the late Apple co-founder reveals closeness of the relationship between him and his successor

Steve Jobs rejected an offer of a liver transplant from Tim Cook in 2009, a new biography of the late Apple co-founder reveals.

Despite becoming increasingly ill from cancer, Jobs angrily turned down the proposal by the man who would go on to run Apple after he died.

“He cut me off at the legs, almost before the words were out of my mouth,” said Cook. “‘No,’ [Jobs] said. ‘I’ll never let you do that. I’ll never do that’.”

The revelation is made in Becoming Steve Jobs, by Fast Company executive editor Rick Tetzeli and co-author Brent Schlender, published later this month.

The incident, which underlines the closeness of the relationship between the two men, showed how selfless Jobs was, according to Cook.

“It was: ‘No, I’m not doing that!’ He kind of popped up in bed and said that. And this was during a time when things were just terrible. Steve only yelled at me four or five times during the 13 years I knew him, and this was one of them,” Cook said.

Jobs, who suffered from a rare type of pancreatic cancer, went on to receive a liver transplant in 2009.

He took a six-month medical leave of absence that year, and another period in mid-January 2011 before stepping down as chief executive in August.

He died in October 2011 aged 56.

The book also reveals the close friendship between Jobs and Bob Iger, chairman and chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, in the final yars of his life.

His relationship with Iger had become so strong that Steve had wanted Iger to join the Apple board, which Iger couldn’t do for fiduciary reasons. In fact, because of their friendship, Iger also turned down an invitation from Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt to be on Google’s board. “He told me he’d get jealous,” says Iger.

Jobs served on the board of Disney until his death.

Iger went on to become an Apple director after Jobs died.