MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: After Michael Oher filed a petition in a court accusing the Tuohy family of not adopting him but actually becoming his conservators, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy have slammed him via their lawyers. The family has reportedly decided to end the terms of the custodianship.
The former football tackle submitted his request in Shelby County Probate Court on Monday, August 14. He has alleged being defrauded by the Tuohys, who took him in as a young man in 2004.
“Michael trusted the Tuohys and signed where they told him to sign. What he signed, however, and unknown to Michael until after February 2023, were not adoption papers, or the equivalent of adoption papers,” the petition submitted by Oher claims, as per PEOPLE.
What are Michael Oher’s allegations against the Tuohys?
As per the 37-year-old athlete, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy cheated him by presenting themselves as his adoptive parents and failed to give him a familial environment.
He has alleged that earlier this year he got to know that they were only his conservators, who earned fortunes using his name and also from the Oscar-nominated movie 'The Blind Side,’ which was based on his life.
Oher’s lawyer J Gerard Stranch IV reportedly asserted, “Mike didn't grow up with a stable family life. When the Tuohy family told Mike they loved him and wanted to adopt him, it filled a void that had been with him his entire life.”
“Discovering that he wasn't actually adopted devastated Mike and wounded him deeply,” he added.
What did Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy say?
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy through their attorneys have dismissed the allegations. Their lawyer Martin Singer said, as per Deadline, “The Tuohys opened their home to Mr Oher, offered him structure, support, and, most of all, unconditional love.”
“They have consistently treated him like a son and one of their three children,” Singer asserted, before alleging Oher of threatening his clients. Singer went on to state, “His response was to threaten them, including saying that he would plant a negative story about them in the press unless they paid him $15 million.”
Why was Michael Oher in a conservatorship?
According to another lawyer of Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, Randall Fishman, they decided to be Oher’s conservators since "the conservatorship was the fastest way to satisfy the NCAA's concerns that the Tuohys weren´t simply steering a talented athlete to Mississippi," the Daily Mail reported.
Besides, as per Singer, the decision was made to help Oher get “health insurance and obtaining a driver’s license to helping with college admissions.”
“Should Mr Oher wish to terminate the conservatorship, either now or at any time in the future, the Tuohys will never oppose it in any way," Singer stated.
Tuohys’ lawyer on the money they earned from ‘The Blind Side’?
According to the attorney, when a proposal came to make a movie based on Oher’s book written by Michael Lewis — ‘I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond’ — the writer’s “agents negotiated a deal where they received a small advance from the production company and a tiny percentage of net profits.”
“They insisted that any money received be divided equally. And they have made good on that pledge,” Singer noted, before mentioning, “The evidence – documented in profit participation checks and studio accounting statements – is clear: over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from ‘The Blind Side’.”
The lawyer also added, “The idea that the Tuohys have ever sought to profit off Mr. Oher is not only offensive, it is transparently ridiculous. Through hard work and good fortune, Sean and Leigh Anne have made an extraordinary amount of money in the restaurant business.”
