What to Know
- The tale of Michael Oher and his adoption by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy was the issue of a 2006 Michael Lewis guide and subsequent 2009 Sandra Bullock film “The Blind Facet.”
- In a new filing, Oher claims the couple did not ever really formally adopt him, instead inserting him underneath a conservatorship in 2004 that was supposed to past right up until he was 25 or till it was terminated.
- Oher has questioned the courtroom to stop the Tuohys’ conservatorship and concern an injunction barring them from working with his identify and likeness.
Previous soccer player Michael Oher, whose evident adoption out of poverty and increase to the NFL was retold in the 2006 e-book and subsequent 2009 motion picture “The Blind Side,” is professing that the Tuohy household hardly ever formally adopted him and rather place him unknowingly in a conservatorship used to make tens of millions off his story.
The previous NFL offensive lineman petitioned a Tennessee court docket on Monday alleging that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy fabricated important components of the story in purchase to make money, in accordance to documents acquired by NBC Information.
Oher was taken into their residence as a high university pupil, but Oher promises that the rich pair tricked him into signing a doc creating them his conservators soon after he turned 18. In flip, that gave them the legal authority to make company promotions applying his name — and nevertheless does to this working day.
The petition more promises that the Tuohys struck a offer that paid out them and their two delivery youngsters tens of millions of dollars in royalties from the film starring Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne, which acquired more than $300 million. All four associates of the Tuohy spouse and children allegedly been given $225,000, furthermore 2.5% of the film’s “defined web proceeds,” in accordance to the petition.
Oher received no payment from the film.
Oher, 37, asked the court docket to end the Tuohys’ conservatorship and situation an injunction barring them from applying his title and likeness — which they have nonetheless been performing to boost their basis and Leigh Anne’s do the job as an writer and motivational speaker.
The situation was reportedly introduced to mild following an investigation by Oher’s law firm, J. Gerard Stranch IV.
Stranch reportedly learned the conservatorship document in February 2023, which was when Oher uncovered that he experienced in no way been formally adopted, in accordance to the complaint.
The Tuohys allegedly explained to him that since he was no more time a insignificant when they commenced the method when he was residing with them in higher school, the adoption paperwork was titled a conservatorship, according to the petition.
“At no position did the Tuohys advise Michael that they would have supreme manage of all his contracts, and as a outcome Michael did not fully grasp that if the Conservatorship was granted, he was signing absent his ideal to contract for himself,” the petition claimed.
A cellular phone get in touch with to Sean Tuohy was not instantly returned to NBC Information on Monday. The legal professional who submitted the first 2004 conservatorship circumstance on behalf of the Tuohys told NBC Information he had not nonetheless spoken to the couple about Oher’s new submitting.
Oher performed college or university football at the University of Mississippi, the Tuohys’ alma mater. He was a initially-spherical decide by the Baltimore Ravens in 2009 and performed 8 seasons in the NFL.
