In legal documents filed on Monday (August 14), former NFL player Michael Oher is claiming that his alleged-adopted parents, Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy, never actually adopted him and, instead, tricked him into signing conservatorship papers when he was 18 years old – making millions off of his name.
The allegations came as a surprise to everyone – including Oher, who claims he thought he was signing adoption papers in 2004. He went on to play college football at Ole Miss University between 2005 through 2008 before being drafted in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He spent eight years as an NFL offensive lineman.
His story was depicted in the popular 2009 film The Blind Side – which was based on a 2006 novel by the same name. The film had a $29 million budget but went on to gross $309 million at the box office. Now 14 years later, Oher is claiming he’s the only one in the family who didn’t profit off the movie’s success.
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In fact, Michael Oher is claiming that his ‘adopted parents,’ Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, and their two biological children, daughter Collins and son Sean Jr., each received $225,000 for the movie and 2.5% of the film’s revenue in residual checks. Meanwhile, Oher alleges that he received nothing from the film.
“I am disheartened by the revelation shared in the lawsuit today,” Michael Oher shared in a statement on August 14. “This is a difficult situation for my family and me. I want to ask everyone to please respect our privacy at this time. For now, I will let the lawsuit speak for itself and will offer no further comment.”
In the legal filing, Michael claims that he ‘trusted the Tuohys and signed where they told him to sign’ in 2004. It wasn’t until February 2023 that Oher realized it wasn’t adoption papers he signed 20 years ago – it was a conservatorship. Now, he wants the Tuohy’s to be held accountable for falsifying his life story.
As the legal petition read, “Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys.”
“Mike didn’t grow up with a stable family life,” Oher’s lawyer said. “When the Tuohy family told Mike they loved him and wanted to adopt him, it filled a void that had been with him his entire life,” Stranch claimed to the outlet. “Discovering that he wasn’t actually adopted devastated Mike and wounded him deeply.”
Tuohy Family Responds to Michael Oher’s Allegations
After Michael Oher went public with his allegations, the Tuohy family responded by disputing his claims and, instead, claiming that they’ve always acted in good faith and have treated Oher like a son for 20 years. They also claimed that he threatened to go public with his claims if they didn’t pay him $15 million.
The Tuohy’s also claim that they’ve split the money they’ve received from the film equally among the family – including Oher. Not only that, but they claim this isn’t the first time Oher has threatened to go public. They say he tried this in the past but hadn’t found a lawyer willing to represent him – until now.
“We’re devastated,” Sean Tuohy said. “It’s upsetting to think we would make money off any of our children. But we’re going to love Michael at 37 just like we loved him at 16.” Tuohy then added, “We didn’t make any money off the movie. We were never offered money; we never asked for money.”
And when asked about the conservatorship, Sean explained, saying, “We contacted lawyers who had told us that we couldn’t adopt over the age of 18; the only thing we could do was to have a conservatorship. We were so concerned it was on the up-and-up that we made sure the biological mother came to court.”
“It’s hard because you have to defend yourself, but whatever he wants, we’ll do. We’re not in this for anything other than whatever he wants. If he’d have said, ‘I don’t want to be part of the family anymore,’ we’d have been very upset, but we absolutely would have done it.”
Even Sean Jr., who was just 11 years old when the family took Oher in, spoke out against his brother’s claims. While he understands why Oher might be upset, he rebutted the fact that the family had made millions off the film – adding that his (Sean’s) life would look a lot different if he were a millionaire.
Furthermore, Sean Tuohy (the father) claimed that the conservatorship was necessary because Oher wouldn’t have been allowed to play college football if he weren’t an official part of the family. And since their lawyers, at the time, said they couldn’t adopt over 18 years old, they went with a conservatorship.
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Now, Oher wants that conservatorship terminated and is asking the court to account for all the money the family made off his name – that way, he can receive what he’s owed. While the family isn’t against the termination, they are eager to defend their name and beat the lawsuit – which they describe as ‘offensive.’
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