‘The Blind Side’ subject Michael Oher says adoption by Tuohy family was a lie and he was cut out of money from the movie. This was all revealed earlier this week in a damning lawsuit filed by the former NFL star.
Oher alleges that the couple who took him in as a teenager misled him into believing they were adopting him — and that they instead placed him in a conservatorship, according to a court filing Monday.
The story of Oher and the Tuohy family became the subject of an Oscar-winning film, “The Blind Side,” starring Sandra Bullock in the role of Leigh Anne Tuohy. The film, based on the Michael Lewis book of the same name, took you through Oher’s life as a homeless child through his college football career and eventual NFL stardom.
After “The Blind Side” came out in 2009, “Saturday Night Live” made a spoof of the film and no one knew at the time, but it would end up turning insanely accurate due to the latest accusations from Michael Oher.
Oher’s petition states the Tuohys negotiated a deal with 20th Century Fox that left Oher without any payment for the rights to his name, likeness, and life story, while the Tuohy family received a contract price of $225,000 and 2.5% of the film’s net proceeds.
The lawsuit further says the film has grossed over $300 million while a $200,000 donation was also made to Leigh Anne Tuohy’s charitable foundation. The petition accuses the Tuohys of a breach of their fiduciary duty as conservators “so gross and appalling that they should be sanctioned by this court.”
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He has also stated he was tricked into signing a document that made them his conservators.
Sean Tuohy, meanwhile, has fired back and stated the conservatorship was the only option in order to ensure that Oher could play college football at Ole Miss.
“I sat Michael down and told him, ‘If you’re planning to go to Ole Miss — or even considering Ole Miss — we think you have to be part of the family. This would do that legally,’” Tuohy said. “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.”
Oher is requesting the Tuohys account for his assets, as required by the conservatorship; pay him any money he was owed over the years, with interest; pay his attorney fees and punitive damages; and be sanctioned for violating the terms of the conservatorship.
