The Tuohy family is now alleging in a court filing that former NFL player Michael Oher tried to extort them for $15 million with threats of stories on TMZ and attacks on social media over his claims that they stole money from him after the famed film The Blind Side was released.
According to the filing, Oher told the Tuohys that he would “defame them on social media and/or TMZ as ‘fakes’ and ‘thieves,’” if they did not come up with the cash, TMZ reported.
The filing is in response to Oher’s lawsuit against them, which contends that they reaped the benefits of proceeds from the 2006 movie that they never passed on to him.
Oher reportedly sent texts to the Tuohys claiming he was “robbed of fifty million+,” though he later said that if they paid him $10 million, he would drop his lawsuits.
“If something isn’t resolved this Friday,” he allegedly texted, “I’m going to go ahead and tell the world how I was robbed by my suppose to be parents. That’s the deadline,” he wrote, adding, “Think how it will look when it comes out.”
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When the family rejected the demands, Oher reportedly then upped his demands to “$15 million after taxes.”
But the Tuohys have steadfastly maintained that Oher received $138,309.90, just like every member of the family, and that was all there was from the film’s proceeds.
The family has said they have been “devastated” by Oher’s accusations. But at least one of his claims rings very true.
It is well known that the Tuohy family claimed they wanted to “adopt” Oher when he was a teen and came to them for a stable home. And as they worked to support him as he pursued a college football career — which turned into a brief pro-football career — they often called him their “son” in public. However, the fact is, the family never adopted him and instead set up a legal conservatorship under which they retained control of his finances. And that legal situation continued into Oher’s thirties and even after he left 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)
Oher has said that the family lied to him about adopting him, and the legal papers prove — at least to that degree — that they never did adopt him as a legal son.
However, the family also said that Tennessee law prevented his adoption because he was already past the adoption age of 16 when he came to them. They add that the conservatorship was the only way they could prove to the schools that Oher had a stable home to allow him to take advantage of scholarships and other academic offers.
The Tuohys have also seen some support. Oher’s college coach, for instance, defended the Tuohy family for how they treated and cared for POher during his college years.
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