You can’t always believe what you see in movies, even if the screenplay is based on a true story. Former football player Michael Oher, whose life story is the basis for the hit film The Blind Side, claims the Tuohy family never actually adopted him, according to a new court filing. Michael's lawsuit claims it was all a scheme to make millions of dollars.
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Michael believed he was legally adopted by the Tuohys.
Filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, the 14 page petition alleges that less than three months after Michael turned 18 in 2004, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy "tricked" Michael into signing a document that made them his conservators, not adoption papers.
The conservatorship gave them the legal authority to make business deals in his name.
"The lie of Michael's adoption is one upon which Co-Conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy have enriched themselves at the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher," the legal filing states, reports ESPN. "Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys."
Michael is seeking to regain full control from the Tuohys.
In addition to the adoption fraud, the petition also alleges that the Tuohys used their conservatorship power to broker a deal that paid them and their two biological children millions of dollars in royalties from the film that ultimately made more than $300 million, while Michael got nothing, even though the story "would not have existed without him."
Even though the Tuhoys know that they are conservators and not legally Michael’s parents, they still assert themselves as his adoptive parents, especially as it related to their foundation and Leigh Anne Tuohy’s work as a motivational speaker and author.
Michael is seeking to have the conservatorship ended and also have an injunction issued that will bar the Tuhoys from using his name and likeness.
Michael had no idea that this happened until February 2023.
"Since at least August of 2004, Conservators have allowed Michael, specifically, and the public, generally, to believe that Conservators adopted Michael and have used that untruth to gain financial advantages for themselves and the foundations which they own or which they exercise control," the petition says. "All monies made in said manner should in all conscience and equity be disgorged and paid over to the said ward, Michael Oher."
According to Michael, he was a senior in high school when the Tuhoys had him sign the conservatorship papers. At the time, they told him there was little difference between the conservatorship and adoption, but the conservatorship took his age into account.
But of course, that’s not true at all. Legally, if the Tuhoys had adopted him, Michael would have retained authority over his finances. With a conservatorship, the Tuohys had full financial control over him.
The Tuohys claim they didn't make millions off of the film.
According to the legal filing, Sean and Leigh Ann Tuhoy, along with their two biological children, Collins Tuhoy and Sean Tuhoy Jr., were paid $225,000, plus 2.5% of the film's "defined net proceeds." The film was a critical and commercial success, including an Oscar win for actress Sandra Bullock.
Michael alleges he received a different contract in 2007, one that appeared to “give away” the rights to his life story to 20th Century Fox studio "without any payment whatsoever."
The Tuohy family has maintained that they didn’t make a lot of money from the movie, claiming to have made a flat fee for their story, received no part of the profits, and shared what they did make with Michael.
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'The Blind Side' was allegedly damaging to Michael and his career.
Since The Blind Side came out in 2009, Michael has tried to fight against the way the film depicted him. Because the film portrayed him as unintelligent, it impacted him during his football career.
"People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie," he told ESPN in 2015. "They don't really see the skills and the kind of player I am."
"There has been so much created from The Blind Side that I am grateful for, which is why you might find it as a shock that the experience surrounding the story has also been a large source of some of my deepest hurt and pain over the past 14 years," Michael wrote in his latest book, When Your Back's Against the Wall.
"Beyond the details of the deal, the politics, and the money behind the book and movie, it was the principle of the choices some people made that cut me the deepest."
