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Dial-A-Romance? You won't believe how Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak met his first wife

Speed News Desk | Updated on: 10 February 2017, 1:47 IST

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of tech giant Apple, turned 66 on 11 August.

While Wozniak's achievements in the field of tech have been widely documented, not many know about his personal life. In 1980, Wozniak married Alice Robertson.

The two met on Dial-A-Joke, a telephone service that he started in 1973 as a hobby. Users could ring Dial-A-Joke to listen to previously recorded as well as live jokes.

Wozniak picked up one such live call and told the voice on the other end: "I bet I can hang up faster than you," before hanging up.

In response to an email query, Wozniak confirmed that Alice was the voice on the other end of the call. When asked if the Dial-a-Joke romance rumours were true, he said:

"My first wife. I was thankful back then just to ever have gotten married in my life. There was some doubt that it would happen! I was young and naive and pure and could never possibly not have been there for her alone. But after Apple's success, I found out that if one party wants a divorce then there's a divorce. She certainly has a lot more money than I do today.I just had to laugh at the part in the movie where someone called Dial-A-Joke. I remember calling that number to hear the joke of the day. Was it really you who did this?"

Dial-A-Joke came much before Wozniak and Apple revolutionised the tech industry.

The Silicon Valley icon writes, "Dial-a-Joke was a GREAT thing. I did it all alone, a little before Apple. I did a lot of great things back then. Dial-a-Joke was the first one in the San Francisco Bay area ever. It cost a lot because you couldn't buy answering machines back then. You could only rent an expensive machine from the phone company."

First published: 12 August 2016, 1:54 IST