‘Blind Side’ subject Michael Oher wrote about conservatorship in 2011 memoir: Here’s what he said
Michael Oher acknowledged his conservatorship with the Tuohy family in his 2011 memoir — more than ten years before he publicly claimed the family duped him into thinking he’d been adopted for nearly two decades.
Oher, whose story inspired the blockbuster movie “The Blind Side,” wrote about the arrangement he signed with Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy in 2004 as an 18-year-old college football recruit in his biography, “I Beat the Odds.”
“There was one major event that happened right after I graduated high school: I became a legal member of the Tuohy family,” Oher wrote. “It felt kind of like a formality, as I’d been a part of the family for more than a year at that point.”
“Since I was already over the age of eighteen and considered an adult by the state of Tennessee, Sean and Leigh Anne would be named as my ‘legal conservators.’ They explained to me that it means pretty much the exact same thing as ‘adoptive parents,’ but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account.”
“Honestly, I didn’t care what it was called. I was just happy that no one could argue that we weren’t legally what we already knew was real: We were a family.”
Oher described how he and the Tuohys brought his mother to the hearing so she could give her consent to the new arrangement.
“My mother was going to be at the hearing to agree that she supported the decision to have the Tuohys listed as my next of kin and legal conservators,” he wrote. “My mother was supportive of the whole thing and there wasn’t a whole lot of emotion all around because it was just a matter of formalizing the way we’d been living for the past year.”
“After court, we all went out to brunch together to celebrate. Then we dropped my mother off and went back to the house–to our house.”
Oher is now seeking to end that conservatorship, alleging the Tuohys used it to make millions off of his name and story without having to give him a penny.
“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,” a petition Oher filed in a Tennessee court in August says, according to ESPN.
“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 alleges Oher only learned the conservatorship was not truly equivalent to adoption in February 2023, but that the Tuohys had profited for years by telling the public they had adopted the NFL star.
In addition to the dissolution of the conservatorship, Oher demanded that a full accounting be taken of all earnings the Tuohys made off of his story — including royalties from the $300 million-grossing “The Blind Side” — and that his rightful share be paid to him.
“All monies made in said manner should in all conscience and equity be disgorged and paid over to the said ward, Michael Oher,” the petition reads.
The Tuohys denied Oher’s allegations, with Sean Tuohy telling the Daily Memphian they were “devastated” by the filing.
He said the 2004 conservatorship was drawn up merely to ensure Oher would be able to play college football, and that he was able to leave it whenever he wanted.
Toughy — who was independently wealthy from fast food franchises before meeting Oher — also insisted his family never collected significant royalties from “The Blind Side.”
The family also claimed through their lawyer that Oher initially demanded $15 million from them on the threat that he would go public with a lawsuit, according to TMZ.
