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Did Sean Tuohy adopt Michael Oher?
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Did Michael Oher get money from 'the Blind Side'?
Jul 10, 2024 · In 2023, The Blind Side real subject Michael Oher filed a lawsuit against Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, alleging that the narrative of his adoption was a fabrication.
- Kaashif Hajee
Sep 21, 2023 · Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy make dozens of references to adopting Michael Oher in their 2010 book, despite claiming in a recent legal filing there was 'never an intent to adopt' him.
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy hit back at former NFL star Michael Oher in a new court filing Thursday, saying they never intended to adopt him and denied enriching themselves off his name. The...
- 3 min
- Marlene Lenthang,Diana Dasrath
- Overview
- The Tuohys used 'The Blind Side' fame to promote adoption
- Oher believed the Tuohys were legally his family
Michael Oher, the former NFL star whose life story inspired the Oscar-winning film "The Blind Side," says he genuinely believed he'd been adopted by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy after they took him in as a teenager in Memphis, Tennessee.
With a mother who struggled with drug abuse, Oher often found himself without a stable home and became a ward of the state by age 11. By the time he met the Tuohys, he was homeless.
Now, nearly 20 years later, Oher says the couple misled him into signing away his legal rights and entering a conservatorship under the guise that it would legally make him a member of the family.
Conservatorships are legal arrangements that can strip people of their civil rights, putting third parties in charge of their ability to make contract or medical decisions for themselves.
Oher genuinely believed he was a part of their family, and the Tuohys referred to him as their son and brother. For years, the Tuohy family leaned in to the popularity of the book “The Blind Side” by Michael Lewis, as well as the film, becoming advocates for adoption and foster care.
Leigh Anne Tuohy established the Making It Happen Foundation for underprivileged youths and has spent years encouraging people to consider adoption on television and social media. Testimonials on the foundation website even include comments about how inspiring the family's story has been to people when they look on their own families and in how they treat others.
Sandra Bullock won an Oscar in 2010 for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy in "The Blind Side," bringing attention to the mother who saw her daughter's homeless classmate and gave him a place to stay.
The movie chronicles how Oher, with the Tuohy family's help, made the transition from homelessness to attending college as a star player for the Ole Miss Rebels. (He later played in the NFL, primarily for the Baltimore Ravens.)
Over the years, Leigh Anne Tuohy has used the platform the movie gave her to advocate for adoption and fostering of children. She posts about a child who needs a home nearly every week in what she calls #ForeverFamilyFriday on Instagram.
In multiple interviews over the last decade, she insisted that her message to people everywhere is that "families don't have to match."
She even hosted a television series on UpTV in 2013 called "Family Addition," which centered on stories of adoption.
In a trailer for the series, Leigh Anne Tuohy describes Oher as "our son" before she noted that many "heroes" make homes for children across the country.
In his 2011 memoir, “I Beat The Odds,” Oher seemed to genuinely believe the conservatorship was a form of adoption for legal adults.
Oher wrote that Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy had “assumed responsibility” for him as guardians already but that the couple was making the formal decision to make him “a legal member of the Tuohy family.”
“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 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,” Oher wrote.
He went on to say he was simply happy that no one could argue what he already knew was true: He and the Tuohys were family.
Oher briefly spoke about the Tuohys in an interview Monday with Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Marshall Ramsey, who interviewed Oher, said the conversation occurred before news about the petition broke.
Oher was promoting his latest book, “When Your Back’s Against the Wall: Fame, Football, and Lessons Learned Through a Lifetime of Adversity,” and discussed his life before he lived with the Tuohy family.
- 3 min
- Doha Madani
Sep 29, 2023 · A Tennessee judge signed an order Friday ending Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy’s conservatorship over Michael Oher, a month after the former NFL player accused the couple of representing...
Aug 14, 2023 · Michael Oher, whose life inspired The Blind Side, filed a legal petition to terminate a conservatorship alleging Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy lied about adopting him.
Sep 15, 2023 · The Blind Side subjects Sean Tuohy and wife Leigh Anne Tuohy said there was "never an intent to adopt" Michael Oher, who alleged in August that the family lied about adopting him.
