*The family featured in “The Blind Side” has responded to ex-NFLer Michael Oher’s claims that they bamboozled him for money and clout.
As EUR’s Yolanda Baruch reported previously, the retired athlete, whose life story inspired “The Blind Side,” is suing Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy for profiting off his story and likeness. In court documents filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, probate court, Oher alleges that the Tuohys tricked him into making the couple his conservators.
The 14-page petition “alleges that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, who took Oher into their home as a high school student, never adopted him. Instead, less than three months after Oher turned 18 in 2004, the petition says, the couple tricked him into signing a document making them his conservators, which gave them legal authority to make business deals in his name,” per 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 Oher, 37, 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,” according to ESPN.
Sean Tuohy told the Daily Memphian that Oher’s allegations have “devastated” the family.
The conservatorship was established to make sure Oher was eligible to play football at the University of Mississippi, Tuohy said, New York Post reports.
As a booster at the school, Tuohy believes Oher could have come into conflict with the NCAA if he hadn’t been a member of the family.
“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.”
Meanwhile, “The Blind Side” movie starring Sandra Bullock did not reap a substantial profit for the family, Tuohy said.
“We didn’t make any money off the movie,” Touhy said. “Well, Michael Lewis, the [author of the book on which the movie was based] gave us half of his share. Everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000, each.”
Over the course of his NFL career, the family remained close to Oher, but Tuohy noticed a growing distance between them about a year and a half ago.
“No question, the allegations are insulting,” Tuohy said of Oher’s lawsuit. “But, look, it’s a crazy world. You’ve got to live in it. It’s obviously upset everybody.”
READ MORE: NFLer Michael Oher Says ‘The Blind Side’ Damaged His Career
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