Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy have accused former NFL star Michael Oher, whose life story served as the basis for the Oscar-winning film The Blind Side, of a $15 million “shakedown” before going public with his explosive claim that the family profited off his life story.
As The Blind Side documented, in the early 2000s, the Tuohy family took Oher into their home during his time at a private high school in Memphis, Tennessee, where he excelled in football. Oher came from a troubled home life, and the Tuohys opted to support him as he finished high school. He eventually went on to Ole Miss and later joined the NFL.
Baltimore Ravens #23 draft pick Michael Oher poses for a photograph with his family at Radio City Music Hall for the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25, 2009, in New York City (Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
On Monday, Oher alleged in a bombshell lawsuit that the family essentially fooled him into a conservatorship to profit off his name. As Breitbart News reported:
Oher now says he didn’t benefit at all from the millions that the film earned. On top of that, he alleges that the entire Tuohy family raked in hundreds of thousands while he got nothing.
In addition, Oher claims he has since discovered that despite what the Tuohys have always said — and despite what is claimed in books and in the film — Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy never did adopt him into the family. Instead, they had him sign a conservatorship document when he was a teen that gave them the legal right to control his finances and any business deals in his name. And now he is suing to get what is his.
Sean Tuohy later said that the family has been “devastated” by the claims and that his family never profited off his name.
“Michael was obviously living with us for a long time, and the NCAA didn’t like that,” Tuohy told the Daily Memphian. “They said the only way Michael could go to Ole Miss was if he was actually part 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.’ 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.”
Legal representatives for the Tuohy family now claim that Oher tried to blackmail them for $15 million prior to the lawsuit by threatening to go public with the story.
Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Michael Oher sits on the team’s bench during the fourth quarter against the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. (Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“Over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from “The Blind Side,’” attorney Marty Singer told TMZ Sports.
“Even recently, when Mr. Oher started to threaten them about what he would do unless they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as part of that shakedown effort refused to cash the small profit checks from the Tuohys, they still deposited Mr. Oher’s equal share into a trust account they set up for his son,” he added.
Singer further charged that Oher had been dropped by other lawyers until he “found a willing enabler and filed this ludicrous lawsuit as a cynical attempt to drum up attention in the middle of his latest book tour.”
“The notion that a couple worth hundreds of millions of dollars would connive to withhold a few thousand dollars in profit participation payments from anyone — let alone from someone they loved as a son — defies belief,” Singer told TMZ.
Paul Roland Bois joined Breitbart News in 2021. He also directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. A high-quality, ad-free stream can also be purchased on Google Play or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.