Former NFL player Michael Oher, who was the focus of the popular Hollywood movie The Blind Side, has filed a lawsuit against his patrons, the Tuohy family.
Oher alleges the family abused their power over his finances and stole from him. Steve Tuohy and his wife have denied the allegations.
“We’re devastated,” Steve Tuohy said in response to the lawsuit. Oher had a difficult home life in the early 2000s and the Tuohy family took him in. The heartwarming story became a major motion picture in 2009 starring Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy. (Poll: Is America Better Off Under Biden? VOTE)
Tuohy family denies Michael Oher's claim that they withheld "Blind Side" money. https://t.co/NHRdL76LFP pic.twitter.com/ViJbuN2NLq
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) August 16, 2023
“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 added.
The Tuohy family supported Oher through high school and college before he joined the NFL. Oher claims the Tuohy family took money that was rightfully his and misled him about adopting him into the family.
Steve Tuohy is a successful entrepreneur who sold his fast-food franchises for $200 million. Tuohy says he didn’t need to get money from Oher or the 2009 movie. (Trending: Hawaii Democrats Outraged With Biden)
“We didn’t make any money off the movie,” Tuohy explained. “Michael Lewis (the author of the book ‘The Blind Side’) gave us half of his share. Everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000, each.”
“We were never offered money. We never asked for money. My money is well-documented. You can look up how much I sold my company for,” he said. “I will say it’s upsetting that people would think I would want to make money off any of my children,” Tuohy added.
The state of Tennessee does not permit adoptions after a person’s 18th birthday so the Tuohy family offered Oher a conservatorship.
“Michael was obviously living with us for a long time, and the NCAA didn’t like that,” Tuohy said. “They said the only way Michael could go to Ole Miss was if he was actually part of the family. I sat Michael down and told him, ‘If you’re planning to go to Ole Miss — or even considering Ole Miss — we think you have to be part of the family. This would do that, legally.’” (Poll: Do You Stand With Trump? VOTE)
“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 said.
Tuohy said that he and his wife would be happy to end the conservatorship if that is what Oher wanted.
