The world may have become privy to what would be one of the biggest fraud stories in American sports folklore. Michael Oher, the inspiration for the 2009 movie “The Blind Side,” reveals some shocking details about the story that made him and his adoptive parents feel-good film famous; that they are not his adoptive parents.
That lie, according to Oher, made them millions of dollars.
On Monday, Oher filed a petition to a Tennessee court alleging that a crucial component of the story that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy adopted him was a lie conceived by the family as a get-rich scheme. According to reports, the 14-page petition, filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, probate court, alleges that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy did a bait-and-switch.
After taking Oher into their home as a high school student, they never adopted him. Conversely, less than three months after Oher’s 18th birthday in 2004, the couple misled him into signing a document that made them his conservators. The agreement granted them the legal power to make business deals in his name.
Michael Oher, who was the subject of ‘THE BLIND SIDE,’ has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was never adopted by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, but was instead tricked into a conservatorship that gave them control over his money and businesses.
“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 says.
“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.”
The Oscar-winning film starring Sandra Bullock earned more than $300 million, and Oher now wants to constrict the Tuohys and their two children from profiting further from his story. The movie reportedly paid the Tuohys and their two birth children $225,000 each, in addition to 2.5% of the film’s “defined net proceeds,” according to the legal filing.
He is petitioning the court to end the conservatorship and wants an injunction barring them from using his name and likeness.
Additionally, Oher wants a full accounting of earnings the Tuohys made using his name, a portion of those profits, and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
My bad Sandra Bullock you are trending now but the facts are Michael Oher is shedding light on how his faked adopted family and Hollywood used him to create a “White Savior” story to make millions for them and ZERO for him. pic.twitter.com/3aB8msXoY9
“Since at least August of 2004, Conservators have allowed Michael, specifically, and the public, generally, to believe that Conservators adopted Michael and have used that untruth to gain financial advantages for themselves and the foundations which they own or which they exercise control,” the petition says.
“All monies made in said manner should in all conscience and equity be disgorged and paid over to the said ward, Michael Oher.”
In their 2010 book, “In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving,” the Tuohys stated that from the movie, they received a flat fee for the story and did not see any of the movie’s enormous profits, but “we divided it five ways,” meaning the parents, their two children, and Oher.
lotta ppl should ask themselves why they found the tuohys story more impressive than michael oher's in the first place. just think of how many people were glad to cut them checks without once thinking about oher.
In his 2011 memoir, “I Beat the Odds,” Oher explained that he signed the conservatorship papers as a rising high school senior because the Tuohys told him there was no difference between adoption and conservatorship.
Had the Tuohys adopted Oher, his legal family member status would have allowed him the power to handle his finances. However, the conservatorship relinquished that authority to the Tuohys, even though he was a legal adult and had no known disabilities.
Oher is looking to set the record straight again on his life story, which is still unfolding.
