Update: Michael Oher has issued a statement along with his legal filing against the Tuohy family.
“I am disheartened by the revelation shared in the lawsuit today,” Oher said (via People magazine). “This is a difficult situation for my family and me. I want to ask everyone to please respect our privacy at this time. For now, I will let the lawsuit speak for itself and will offer no further comment.”
Earlier: The Tuohy family is sharing their side of “The Blind Side” production.
After former NFL star Michael Oher claimed that he was forced into a questionable conservatorship that in part cheated him out of the 2009 film‘s profits, adoptive father Sean Tuohy told The Daily Memphian that Oher’s claims are inaccurate.
“We didn’t make any money off the movie,” Tuohy said. “Well, Michael Lewis [the author of the book that inspired the movie] gave us half of his share. Everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000, each.”
He continued, “We’re devastated. It’s upsetting to think we would make money off any of our children. But we’re going to love Michael at 37 just like we loved him at 16.”
Tuohy noted that the conservatorship was not relevant to the film rights but instead was crafted to help Oher negotiate his recruitment to play football at the University of Mississippi. Oher was a homeless teen who was brought to the Tuohy’s high school as a breakout football player; the Tuohys later took in Oher, who lived with the family. Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock portrayed Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy in the 2009 film, which landed Bullock an Academy Award.
“They said the only way Michael could go to Ole Miss was if he was actually part of the family,” Tuohy said, adding that since Oher was already 18, he could not be legally adopted, hence the conservatorship.
Tuohy continued, “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.”
He added that after learning of Oher’s lawsuit, he would “of course” be open to ending the conservatorship.
Tuohy’s biological son Sean Tuohy Jr. told Barstool Sports that he is sympathetic to Oher’s public claims.
“If someone made a movie that I thought was about me and I see it sold $300 million box office and I didn’t see anything, I see how that would upset me,” Sean Tuohy Jr. said. “I get why he’s mad. I completely understand. It stinks that it’ll play out in a very public stage.”
Oher’s legal filing (per ESPN) states that the football player “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.”
The claim alleges the Tuohys constructed the movie deal to pay them and their two birth children substantial royalties, with each member making $225,000 plus 2.5 percent of “defined net proceeds” from the film. Oher received no profit from the feature. Oher is seeking his “fair share of profits” in addition to “unspecified compensatory and punitive damages,” according to the filing in probate court.
In 2007, Oher allegedly signed a contract that gave away his life rights to the Tuohys “without any payment whatsoever.” Now, Oher is claiming he does not remember signing the contract, and if so, he was not clear on its meaning and repercussions.
