Dilapidated NFL offensive lineman Michael Oher, whose supposed adoption by a effectively off, white family was once the topic of the 2009 movie Blind Aspect starring Sandra Bullock, alleged in court paperwork Monday that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy never the truth is adopted him, per ESPN’s Michael A. Fletcher.
As an different, Oher said he was once tricked into agreeing to the Tuohys as his conservators after he turned into 18, granting them lawful rights to make substitute decisions on his behalf. In turn, he said the family made royalties off the Blind Aspect movie while he didn’t receive a penny.
The lawful submitting learn, in half:
“The lie of Michael’s adoption is one upon which Co-Conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy contain enriched themselves on the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher. Michael Oher came all the scheme through this mislead his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the premise that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in actuality offered him no familial relationship with the Tuohys.”
Oher is in quest of every the pause of the conservatorship and an injunction that would perhaps maybe pause the Tuohys from using and profiting off his name and likeness. He shall be in quest of financial recompense for the money the family already made off his name and likeness, alongside other damages, claiming the family passe the alleged lie of his adoption “to extinguish financial benefits for themselves and the foundations which they contain or which they advise hold watch over.”
“All monies made in said contrivance should always peaceable in all sense of right and wrong and equity be disgorged and paid over to the said ward, Michael Oher,” it added.
Darren Rovell @darrenrovell
The Blind Aspect had a budget of $30 million and grossed $300 million on the box put of living of job.
In step with identical old chop, movie netted roughly $175 million.
Touhy teenagers reportedly got $225,000 + 2.5% of to find proceeds.
That is $4.6M every.
Sandra Bullock was once paid $5M.
In his 2011 memoir, I Beat the Odds, Oher wrote that the Tuohys said there wasn’t a inequity between conservatorship and adoption.
“They defined to me that it contrivance beautiful great the right kind identical thing as ‘adoptive other folks’, nonetheless that the authorized guidelines were correct written in a technique that took my age into fable,” the e book learn.
On the different hand, as Fletcher well-liked, adoption into the family would contain allowed Oher to take care of his contain financial affairs. A conservatorship gave that vitality over utterly to the Tuohys.
“Mike didn’t develop up with a stable family lifestyles. When the Tuohy family suggested Mike they liked him and wanted to adopt him, it stuffed a void that had been with him his complete lifestyles,” said Oher’s lawyer, J. Gerard Stranch IV. “Discovering that he wasn’t the truth is adopted devastated Mike and wounded him deeply.”
Oher, 37, performed eight NFL seasons with the Baltimore Ravens (2009-13), Tennessee Titans (2014) and Carolina Panthers (2015-16). He started exploring why he allegedly didn’t receive earnings from The Blind Aspect movie following his NFL profession, when a lawyer came all the scheme during the conservatorship paperwork.
He has also bristled at how The Blind Aspect depicted him as unintelligent, which first raised doubts to him in regards to the intentions of the Tuohys and led him down the poke toward Monday’s lawful submitting.