Released in 2009, "The Blind Side" starring Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron, and Kathy Bates took the country by storm with its heartwarming portrayal of Michael Oher's journey from a rough childhood to successful career in the NFL — but now the main character says everything was not as it appeared on the big screen.
On Monday, Oher petitioned a court in Tennessee "with allegations that a central element of the story was a lie concocted by the family to enrich itself at his expense," per ESPN.
According to Oher's petition, "Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, who took Oher into their home as a high school student, never adopted him." What's more, Oher alleges that, "less than three months after Oher turned 18 in 2004...the couple tricked him into signing a document making them his conservators, which gave them legal authority to make business deals in his name."
Not exactly the feel-good story Americans fell in love with after "The Blind Side" was released.
More on the petition via ESPN:
The petition further alleges that the Tuohys used their power as conservators to strike a deal that paid them and their two birth children millions of dollars in royalties from an Oscar-winning film that earned more than $300 million, while Oher got nothing for a story "that would not have existed without him." In the years since, the Tuohys have continued calling the 37-year-old Oher their adopted son and have used that assertion to promote their foundation as well as Leigh Anne Tuohy's work as an author and motivational speaker.
"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 Tuohy family did not immediately return phone calls Monday to numbers listed for them. Their attorney, Steve Farese, declined comment to ESPN on Monday, saying the family would file a legal response to the allegations in the coming weeks.
Oher's petition seeks to have a court sever the conservatorship and bar the Tuohys from using Oher's name or likeness in the future while providing a "full accounting of the money" the Tuohys made from Oher's success so he can receive a "fair share" of the income that resulted in addition to "compensatory and punitive damages."
"The Blind Side" reportedly made more than $300 million in box office sales, but Oher claims in his petition that "he never received any money from the movie."
According to the petition, the decision to put Oher into a conservatorship rather than adopt him was about financial control and the distinction wasn't fully explained to Oher at the time:
"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."
Oher was a rising high school senior when he signed the conservatorship papers, and he has written that the Tuohys told him that there was essentially no difference between adoption and conservatorship. "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," Oher wrote in his 2011 best-selling memoir "I Beat the Odds."
But there are some important legal distinctions. If Oher had been adopted by the Tuohys, he would have been a legal member of their family, and he would have retained power to handle his own financial affairs. Under the conservatorship, Oher surrendered that authority to the Tuohys, even though he was a legal adult with no known physical or psychological disabilities.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member