Michael Oher, Subject Of ‘The Blind Side,’ Accuses Tuohys Of Lying About Adoption & Earning Millions Off Him

Michael Oher, former NFL player and subject of the hit film The Blind Side, has petitioned a court with allegations that the Tuohy family lied to him about his adoption and used it to trick him into earning them millions. 

In a 14-page petition that was filed Monday, Oher accuses Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy of tricking him into agreeing to a conservatorship by telling him that it was almost the same thing as adoption.

He detailed the situation in his memoir I Beat the Odds. “They explained to me that it means pretty much the exact same thing as ‘adoptive parents,’ but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account,” he wrote.

He alleges that the Tuohys failed to explain that Oher would be giving them the legal authority to make business decisions without his consent. 

One of these business deals includes the film The Blind Side, which earned Sean, Leigh Anne and their two birth children $225,000 each and 2.5% of the “defined net proceeds” the film earned, while Oher received nothing. 

Oher did not legally receive any profits from the film because he allegedly signed a contract with 20th Century Fox studios that gave away his rights to his personal story “without any payment whatsoever.” Oher claims that he does not have any recollection of signing this agreement and that if he did sign it, no one explained what that would mean for him in the future. 

The movie deal lists that the four family members all were represented by Creative Artists Agency, while Oher was represented by a close family friend, Debra Branan. Branan is the same lawyer that filed the petition for Oher’s conservatorship in 2004. 

Sean is denying that the family made any money from the film and only received profits from the book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, written about their life by Michael Lewis, which the movie was based on.

According to In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving by the Tuohys, any earnings they made were divided equally in five ways. Additionally, he asserted that the purpose of the conservatorship was so that Oher could attend their alma mater, the University of Mississippi. 

Sean maintained that he and his wife believe Oher to be their son. He told Daily Memphian, “We’re devastated. 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.” 

The Tuohys have continued to call Oher their son, despite him not legally being a part of their family. They used this assertation to promote Leigh Anne’s TV shows, books, her work as a motivational speaker and the Tuohy’s Making It Happen Foundation. 

The legal filing states, “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.”

Oher’s lawyers continued, “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 is seeking to end the conservatorship and stop the family from using his name or likeness in the future. Additionally, he is requesting to be paid his share of the profits earned and wants to know how much they made by using his name and story.