Yikes! The Tuohy family follows up their initial “devastated” response with a new claim of Michael Oher attempting to hit them with a $15 million shakedown, before he went public with his explosive lawsuit alleging they tricked him into a conservatorship.
As we shared yesterday, Oher, the former NFL player whose touching story inspired the 2009 Oscar Award-winning movie ‘The Blind Side,’ filed a lawsuit against Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, alleging that they never adopted him, but instead, tricked him into a conservatorship to make themselves more wealthy off of his talents and likeness.
In the court documents, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy are accused of taking Oher into their home as a high school student under a conservatorship that he was tricked into. Per ESPN, the conservatorship granted the family legal authority to make business deals on his behalf.
RELATED: Michael Oher Speaks Out Revealing He Was Never Adopted & Tricked Into A Conservatorship
Now at 37 years of age, Oher is reportedly requesting that a court end the Tuohy family’s conservatorship, ceasing them from further using his name and likeness. He is also reportedly asking for them to provide a full account of their earnings since the beginning of the conservatorship.
Additionally, Oher is reportedly asking for an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages, plus a “fair” share of profits made off of his name and likeness. Another shocking detail revealed that Oher was reportedly never compensated for the Oscar Award-winning movie ‘The Blind Side,’ which was inspired by his story. Reportedly, the Tuohy family negotiated a deal that made them and their two birth children millions of dollars in royalties.
Tuesday morning (August 15), the Tuohy family first broke their silence. Sean Tuohy told the Daily Memphian that there has been a growing distance been the family and Oher for the past year and a half, but on the allegations, he affirmed, “We didn’t make any money off the movie. Well, Michael Lewis [the author of the book that inspired the movie] gave us half of his share. Everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000, each.”
RELATED: ‘The Blind Side’ Family Responds To Michael Oher’s Bombshell Lawsuit
Mr. Tuohy also revealed that he learned about all of Oher’s allegations when a friend forwarding him an article about it. In regards to the conservatorship in question, he claimed it had nothing to do with the movie, but was only meant to help Oher get into the football program and enroll at Ole Miss, where he had played football himself and was an active booster.
Mr. Tuohy said Oher was 18 at the time and that since he was too old to be legally adopted, they placed him under a conservatorship to ensure he could be admitted.
He said, “They said the only way Michael could go to Ole Miss was if he was actually part of the family. We contacted lawyers who had told us that we couldn’t adopt over the age of 18; the only thing we could do was to have a conservatorship. We were so concerned it was on the up-and-up that we made sure the biological mother came to court.”
Mr. Tuohy claimed that if Oher wants to end the conservatorship now, he would “of course” be willing to oblige. He added, “We’re 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.”
The Tuohy’s son, Sean Tuohy Jr., has also spoken out and told Barstool Sports, “I get why he’s mad. I completely understand. It stinks that it’ll play out in a very public stage.”
Since Mr. Tuohy’s initial response, the family has now claimed that Oher attempted a shakedown for $15 million before his lawsuit went public. The family claims that Oher made “outlandish,” “hurtful,” and “absurd” claims against them with his lawsuit.
Via the family’s attorney, Marty Singer, they claim this is not the first time that Oher has tried to get money from them via a shakedown. Firing back at Oher’s 14-page petition filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, Singer said, “The notion that a couple worth hundreds of millions of dollars would connive to withhold a few thousand dollars in profit participation payments from anyone — let alone from someone they loved as a son — defies belief.”
Singer added, “Over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from ‘The Blind Side.’ Even recently, when Mr. Oher started to threaten them about what he would do unless they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as part of that shakedown effort refused to cash the small profit checks from the Tuohys, they still deposited Mr. Oher’s equal share into a trust account they set up for his son.”
Singer continued, “Unbeknownst to the public, Mr. Oher has actually attempted to run this play several times before – but it seems that numerous other lawyers stopped representing him once they saw the evidence and learned the truth. Sadly, Mr. Oher has finally found a willing enabler and filed this ludicrous lawsuit as a cynical attempt to drum up attention in the middle of his latest book tour.”
Concluding, Singer said that the Tuohy family is “heartbroken” over everything and they wish to reconcile with Oher soon. However, he added, “They will not hesitate to defend their good names, stand up to this shakedown and defeat this offensive lawsuit.”
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