The feel-good movie from 2009 is starting to feel pretty complicated.
It’s been 14 years since the film The Blind Side premiered to widespread (and also rocky) acclaim — and now, thanks to a filing by NFL player Michael Oher, the larger-than-life story behind the film just became downright unbelievable. And unfortunately, not in a good way.
The 2009 film depicted Oher’s alleged journey out of poverty and into NFL stardom, thanks to the (again, alleged) support of a wealthy white family, the Tuohys. The film also highlighted a critical part of Oher’s story: The claim that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy adopted Oher into their family a few months after he turned 18.
Except now Oher is claiming he was never adopted at all. Instead, he says, the Tuohys manipulated him into signing another equally life-changing document when he was 18: a set of legal papers which gave them the right to completely manage his finances and business dealings. Oh, and they supposedly did this right at the moment Oher was about to become a highly lucrative commodity as one of the top college football players in the nation. Here’s what we know.
When did Oher realize he wasn’t adopted by the Tuohy family?
According to Oher’s lawyer, J. Gerard Stranch IV, Oher became skeptical of his relationship with the Tuohy family only after The Blind Side came out, when he saw how he was portrayed in the film. Specifically, Oher was depicted as having intellectual disabilities, which isn’t the case in real life. In fact, Oher was academically gifted, which is how he managed to get into the Memphis private school where he would eventually meet the Tuohy children and their parents.
In the years following the release of The Blind Side, though, Oher was too preoccupied with his burgeoning NFL career to spend much time unpacking what had or hadn’t happened with the Tuohys — but he eventually hired a lawyer with the intent of finding out if the family had received more money for the film than they claimed they had.
Through his lawyer, Oher learned that they had, in fact, received far more lucrative deals than they said. (They originally claimed to have earned a flat fee from the film that they divided five ways, which included Oher, but the legal filing now says the four Tuohy family members earned $225,000 each from the film, as well as 2.5 percent of the film’s net proceeds, while Oher received no money from the film whatsoever.)
Through this investigation, Oher also found out an even more startling truth: He’d never been adopted to begin with.
“Mike’s relationship with the Tuohy family started to decline when he discovered that he was portrayed in the movie as unintelligent,” Oher’s attorney said, via ESPN. “Their relationship continued to deteriorate as he learned that he was the only member of the family not receiving royalty checks from the movie, and it was permanently fractured when he realized he wasn’t adopted and a part of the family.”
Oher’s new petition against the Tuohy family seeks punitive damages
Oher retired from the NFL in 2017 and married his girlfriend of 17 years, Tiffany Roy, in 2022. The couple have four children together, two girls and two boys. There’s a certain poetic irony to the timing of Oher’s public revelation: Now that he’s settled with a family of his own, he’s ready to take on the family who allegedly pretended to let him join theirs.
In the petition, filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, Oher claims the Tuohys encouraged him to sign papers for a conservatorship. He says they told him it was the same thing as adoption, but that they had to do it this way because he was over 18 years old. Oher happily signed the papers, he said, because he thought he was joining the Tuohy family — but instead, the papers ensured that he had no legal relationship to them whatsoever and that they had financial control over him moving forward.
“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 says. “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.”
Now, Oher has filed this petition for a number of reasons. First, he wants to legally terminate the conservatorship. Second, he wants to conduct a full accounting of all of the money the Tuohy family has received in relation to his name and likeness. Finally, he wants the Tuohy parents to pay him a share of those profits, as well as an unknown number for punitive damages.
The Tuohy family responds
Sean and Leigh Anne Toughy released a statement in response to Oher’s claims, in which they called Oher’s accusations “hateful and absurd,” and also unequivocally agreed to end the conservatorship, if that’s what Oher wants to do.
“In spite of the false allegation in the lawsuit,” the statement reads, “the Tuohys have always been upfront about how a conservatorship (from which not one penny was received) was established to assist with Mr. Oher’s needs, ranging from getting him health insurance and obtaining a driver’s license to helping with college admissions. Should Mr. Oher wish to terminate the conservatorship, either now or at anytime in the future, the Tuohys will never oppose it in any way.”
“Unbeknownst to the public,” the statement went on, “Mr. Oher has actually attempted to run this play several times before — but it seems that numerous other lawyers stopped representing him once they saw the evidence and learned the truth. Sadly, Mr. Oher has finally 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.”
One of their lawyers, Steven Farese, went on to say that the Tuohy family was only in “the infancy of its defense,” and that there are plans to release more information in the future. “Right now, it’s more of a mental struggle for the Tuohys to have to withstand this initial wave,” Farese said. “But, after the truth comes out, it’ll be pretty cut and dry.”
As for the money Oher claims the family made from his legacy, they insist they didn’t earn anywhere near what he said they did. In an interview with The Dailiy Memphian, Sean Tuohy said each person in the family (including Oher) earned $14,000 from the sale of the book that inspired the film.
Additionally, the author of the novel version of the The Blind Side, a writer named Michael Lewis, has backed the Tuohy family publicly, saying they shared all profits equally with Oher. “They showered him with resources and love,” Lewis said, in an interview with The Washington Post. “That he’s suspicious of them is breathtaking. The state of mind one has to be in to do that — I feel sad for him.” (It’s worth noting that Lewis and Sean Tuohy are childhood friends.)
In response to the Tuohy family statement, Oher released his own response: “I am disheartened by the revelation shared in the lawsuit today. 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.”
The Blind Side producers dispute one of Oher’s claims
In a statement sent to PEOPLE, Alcon Entertainment co-founders and co-CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove, both of whom were involved in the production of The Blind Side, challenged Oher’s assertion that the Tuohy family made millions from the film.
“The notion that the Tuohys were paid millions of dollars by Alcon to the detriment of Michael Oher is false,” the statement said. It went on to clarify the official payment for the family (including Oher) was $767,000, which was allegedly paid in installments through the family’s talent agency.
The statement then went on to defend the veracity of the film itself. “[Oher’s] raising of his own children now, who shall know a life of possibility the likes of which Michael never knew as a child, is the ultimate testament to Michael’s own strength and courage,” it read. “In both of those regards, The Blind Side is verifiably authentic and will never be a lie or fake, regardless of the familial ups and downs that have occurred subsequent to the film.”
A crucial part of Oher’s petition against the Tuohy family is that he wasn’t paid his due for the film. Future filings will clarify whether Oher actually received his allotted portion of this $767,000 payout. Additionally, this statement does not resolve another critical challenge from Oher, which is that the Tuohy family profited off his likeness (via speaking engagements, books, and more). Per The New York Times, Leigh Anne Tuohy has previously charged $30,000 to $50,000 per motivational speaking appearance in recent years.
