Yahoo News ‘The Blind Side’ Subject Michael Oher Alleges He Was Never Adopted By Family As Depicted In Movie, And He Never Saw Profits From Film
Michael Oher, the longtime NFL lineman who rose to national attention when his life story became the basis for the inspirational movie The Blind Side that won Sandra Bullock an Oscar, has petitioned a court saying the basis for the story was not based in fact.
According to a deep-dive story by ESPN on Monday, Oher has filed a petition in Tennessee probate court alleging that a key tenet of his rags-to-riches story — that he was adopted by the Tuohy family, who eventually guided Oher to play football at their alma mater the University of Mississippi and then to the NFL — was untrue. Rather, Oher claims he was tricked by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy to signing conservatorship papers just after he turned 18 that gave them the right to make deals in his name.
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Oher did not discover the new information until February of this year, according to the petition.
The filing, in Shelby County, TN probate court, says the Tuoys used the conservatorship to enrich their own family, leaving Oher out of the profits from Michael Lewis’ book about their story and the subsequent 2009 movie, which starred Bullock as Leigh Ann, Tim McGraw as Sean and Quentin Aaron as Oher. The court filing said the Tuohys and their two birth children received $225,000 each plus 2.5% of defined net proceeds from the Warner Bros movie, which grossed more than $309 million at the global box office. Oher said he received nothing, including for a separate deal that signed over his life story’s rights to 20th Century Fox.
The family has previously said it received a flat fee from the movie and shared profits equally among the five of them – including Oher.
“The lie of Michael’s adoption is one upon which Co-Conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy have enriched themselves at the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher,” the legal filing reads, per ESPN. “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.”
Oher was a star high school player — one of 12 children to a mother who abused drugs — when he signed the paperwork, saying in the filing he was told at the time the conservatorship designation was no different from adoption. One difference though, according to the filing: as a legally adopted member of the Tuohy family, he would have been able to handle his own financial affairs. With the conservatorship, it was the Tuohys who had control.
The Tuohys have continued to say they are Oher’s adoptive parents when they “promote their foundation as well as Leigh Anne Tuohy’s work as an author and motivational speaker,” according to the ESPN reporting.
Oher, now 37, was a two-time All-American at Mississippi and was drafted in the first round in 2009 by the Baltimore Ravens; he won the Super Bowl with the Ravens in 2013. He later played for the Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers in an eight-year career, and retired in 2016.
His latest book, When Your Back’s Against the Wall, written by Oher and Don Yeager, was published last week by Penguin Random House and mentioned his complicated relationship with Blind Side.
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