Michael Oher’s ‘adoptive’ parents want to END conservatorship after he filed bombshell petition saying they swindled him and he earned NOTHING from ‘The Blind Side’
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, the prominent Memphis couple with a long-term relationship with former NFL player Michael Oher, want to end a conservatorship he is challenging in court, their lawyers said.
They plan to enter into a consent order to end the conservatory, attorney Randall Fishman told reporters Wednesday.
Oher filed a petition Monday in a Tennessee probate court accusing the Tuohys of lying to him by making him sign papers nearly two decades ago that made them his conservators instead of his adoptive parents.
Oher, now 37, wants a full accounting of assets since his life story made millions of dollars, though he says he didn’t receive anything from the Oscar-nominated movie “The Blind Side.”
He accuses the Tuohys of falsely posing themselves as his adoptive parents, saying that in February 2023 he discovered that the conservatory was not the arrangement he thought it was – and that it did not earn him a familial relationship with the Tuohys.
Michael Oher with Sean & Leigh Anne Tuohy – all of whom were immortalized in The Blind Side
Oher is seen with Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy after the NFC title match in January 2016
But the Tuohys’ lawyers said Oher knew full well he wasn’t adopted. Fishman said Oher mentioned three times that the Tuohys were conservators for him in “I Beat The Odds: From Homeless, To The Blind Side,” Oher’s first book in 2011.
The couple’s lawyers also said the Tuohys and Oher have been estranged for about a decade. Steve Farese said Oher has become “more and more vocal and menacing” over the past decade, and that this is “devastating for the family.”
The Tuohys have called the charges a ridiculous attempt at shakedown, and “a court is not a place to play,” Fishman said. In a statement released by their lawyers on Tuesday, the Tuohys said Oher had threatened to publish a negative news report about them in court unless they paid him $15 million.
The conservatorship paperwork was filed months after Oher turned 18 in May 2004. Oher accuses the Tuohys of never taking legal action to take custody from the Tennessee Department of Human Services before he turned 18, even though he was told to call them “Mom” and “Mama.” Dad.’
Oher claims that almost immediately after he moved in, the Tuohys had him sign the paperwork as part of the adoption process. Oher says it was “wrongly advised” that it would be called a conservatory because he was already 18, but that adoption was the intention.
The pair didn’t just adopt Oher, Fishman said, because the conservatory was the quickest way to address the NCAA’s concern that the Tuohys weren’t just sending a talented athlete to Mississippi, their alma mater that Oher later attended.
Oher, who has never been a fan of the movie about his life, asks that the Tuohys be sanctioned and ordered to pay damages by the probate court. He asks to be paid what is due to him along with interest.
Agents negotiated a small advance for the production company’s Tuohys for “The Blind Side,” based on a book written by Sean Tuohy’s friend Michael Lewis, the couple said. That included “a small percentage of the net profit” divided equally among a group Oher belonged to, they said in their statement.
Oher’s rags-to-riches story was made into the 2009 Oscar-winning film The Blind Side
Oher was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens with the 23rd overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft
The lawyers said they estimate that each of the Tuohys and Oher received $100,000 each, and that the couple paid taxes on Oher’s share for him. “Michael got every dime, every dime he had,” Fishman said.
“They don’t need his money,” Farese said. “They never needed his money. Mr. Tuohy sold his company for $220 million.”
Martin Singer, an attorney for the Tuohys, said earnings share controls and studio accounting statements support their claims. The film won Sandra Bullock an Oscar for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy.
When Oher refused to cash the checks, the statement said, the Tuohys deposited Oher’s share in a trust account.
The Tuohys said they set up the conservatory to help Oher with health insurance, a driver’s license, and college admission.
Oher was the 23rd overall pick in the 2009 draft out of Mississippi, and he spent his first five seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, winning a Super Bowl. He played 110 games over eight NFL seasons, including 2014 when he started 11 games for the Tennessee Titans. Oher ended his career with two years in Carolina.
He last played in 2016 and was released by Carolina in 2017. He is on a book tour for “When Your Back´s Against the Wall: Fame, Football, and Lessons Learned Through a Lifetime of Adversity.”