Remember the Oscar-winning movie 'The Blind Side' based on the life of former NFL star Michael Oher? Well, there is a twist in the tale. Oher, who retired from football in 2017 after over a decade with teams like Baltimore Ravens, Tennessee Titans and the Carolina Panthers, is suing his "adoptive" parents Sean and Leigh Anne Touhy, claiming he was never adopted by them, who also swindled him into signing away his decision-making powers at 18.
Oher, 37, has filed a lawsuit in a Tennessee court seeking to end Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy’s conservatorship over him. He alleged in the petition that he has never been adopted by the Tuohy's and had been tricked into signing a conservatorship that kept millions of dollars from him. Oher alleged in the petition that he was unaware of the fact that he was not adopted till this February.
In the lawsuit, Oher has sought the money that he claims to have earned from the movie 'The Blind Side' and an injunction stopping Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy from using his name and likeness, reported CNN.
"Michael trusted the Tuohys and signed where they told him to sign. What he signed, however, and unknown to Michael until after February 2023, were not adoption papers, or the equivalent of adoption papers," the petition states. "Instead, the papers appointed Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy his conservators. The conservatorship papers were filed by an attorney so close to the Tuohys that Oher was told to call her aunt," the petition states.
"The papers requested that the conservators have total control over Michael Oher’s ability to negotiate for or enter any contract, despite the fact he was over 18 years of age and had no diagnosed physical or psychological disabilities," the petition states.
Oher has alleged that the Tuohys have allowed him and the public to believe that they adopted Michael and have used that to gain financial advantages for themselves. "All monies made in the said manner should in all conscience and equity be disgorged and paid over to the said ward, Michael Oher," the petition alleged.
It added that the Tuohys negotiated a contract of $225,000 plus 2.5 per cent of future "defined net proceeds" for themselves and their biological children, the lawsuit said.
To the lawsuit, Sean Tuohy said his family was 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," Sean Tuohy told the US-based Daily Memphian.
