ESPN reports:
Retired NFL star Michael Oher, whose supposed adoption out of grinding poverty by a wealthy, white family was immortalized in the 2009 movie “The Blind Side,” petitioned a Tennessee court Monday with allegations that a central element of the story was a lie concocted by the family to enrich itself at his expense.
The 14-page petition, filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, probate court, 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.
Deadline Hollywood reports:
The filing, in Shelby County, TN probate court, says the Tuoys used the conservatorship to enrich their own family, leaving Oher out of the profits from Leigh Anne’s book about their story and the subsequent 2009 movie, which starred Bullock as Leigh Ann and Quentin Aaron as Oher.
The court filing said the Tuohys and their two birth children received $225,000 each plus 2.5% of defined net proceeds from the Warner Bros movie, which grossed more than $309 million at the global box office.
Oher said he received nothing, including for a separate deal that signed over his life story’s rights to 20th Century Fox. The family has previously said it received a flat fee from the movie and shared profits equally among the five of them – including Oher.
Holy crap this story
‘Blind Side’ subject Oher alleges Tuohys made millions off lie – ESPN https://t.co/FiWBD3sNVG
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) August 14, 2023
