After “The Blind Side” became a hit on bookshelves and in theaters, former NFL player Michael Oher released a memoir in 2011 called “I Beat The Odds: From Homeless, To The Blindside.”
Randall Fishman, a lawyer for the Tuohy family, said Wednesday that Oher acknowledged his conservatorship with the family and that Other knew he had not been adopted despite filing a petition in Tennessee court claiming he had been lied to about the papers he signed when he was 18.
In the 2011 book, Oher wrote he “became a legal member of the Tuohy family.”
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“There was one major event that happened right after I graduated high school: I became a legal member of the Tuohy family. It felt kind of like a formality, as I’d been a part of the family for more than a year at that point,” he wrote.
“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 also wrote that his biological mother was brought in for the conservatorship hearing and that she “supported the decision to have the Tuohys listed as my next of kin and legal conservators.”
Oher filed a petition in Shelby County, Tennessee, probate court on Monday, claiming he had been tricked into a conservatorship that solely benefited the Tuohy family.
The filing claimed that Oher discovered he was never legally adopted by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy in February 2023 and alleges that he was tricked into entering a conservatorship after his 18th birthday.
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“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 document read.
“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 Tuohy’s.”
According to the petition, the Tennessee Department of Human Services took custody of Oher in 1996. His attorneys claim that he was left to “live on the streets” because of a “broken social system.”
In just nine years, he had attended 11 schools and repeated two grades. However, through the help of his friend’s father, Tony Henderson, Oher was introduced to Briarcrest Christian School, where he “excelled” from the beginning.
Oher stayed with classmates and at the home of family friends, and “occasionally” with the Tuohy’s, the document alleged. In 2004, the family then invited him to live with them.
“At no time prior to this invitation during Michael’s minority did the Tuohy’s take any legal action to assume custody of Michael from DHS through appropriate channels, nor did they seek to become Michael’s guardian while he was a minor,” the petition read.
“Despite this inaction, the Tuohy’s did tell Michael they loved him and that they intended to legally adopt him. Michael believed them, was delighted to be part of a real and stable family, and trusted Mr. and Mrs. Tuohy completely.”
“At no point did the Tuohy’s inform Michael that they would have ultimate control of all his contracts, and as a result Michael did not understand that if the Conservatorship was granted, he was signing away his right to contract for himself. Michael was falsely advised by the Tuohy’s that because he was over the age of eighteen, that the legal action to adopt Michael would have to be called a ‘conservatorship’ but it was, for all intents and purposes, an adoption.”
Oher also said that another contract, purportedly signed by Oher in 2007, signed away his rights to his story “without any payment whatsoever.”
Oher’s attorney J. Gerard Stranch IV told ESPN that his client was “devastated” when he discovered the true nature of the conservatorship.
Fishman said Wednesday the Tuohy family intends to enter into a consent order to end the conservatorship. Fishman added that Oher received “every dime he had coming.”
Michael Singer, another attorney who represents the Tuohys, said Tuesday Oher threatened to “plant” a negative story in the press about the family unless they paid him $15 million. Singer denied the allegations leveled against the Tuohy family in Oher’s petition to end their conservatorship, calling them “hurtful and absurd.”
Singer added that the family has been “upfront” about how and why the conservatorship was established and that they “will never oppose it in any way” if Oher chooses to terminate it.
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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