Blind Side family will reportedly end Michael Oher's conservatorship

The real-life football player who was depicted in the Sandra Bullock film accused Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy of profiting off of his life earlier this week

By Emma Keates  |  August 17, 2023 | 2:33pm
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Blind Side family will reportedly end Michael Oher's conservatorship
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Michael Oher with Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy in 2008 Photo: Matthew Sharpe

The situation surrounding the real-life subjects of the 2009 Oscar-nominated film The Blind Side—as well as the 2006 novel on which it is based—may be coming to a conclusion. Former NFL offensive tackle Michael Oher, who serves as the main subject of the white savior narrative perpetuated by both the film and the book, filed a petition in a Tennessee court on Monday to end the conservatorship he says duped him out of the rights to his life story and millions of dollars in proceeds from the film. Now, despite referring to the petition as a $15 million “shakedown,” his legal guardians Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy are moving to fulfill Oher’s wishes and end the conservatorship.


An attorney for the couple, per the Associated Press, said on Wednesday the Tuohys intend to enter into a consent agreement to put an end to the conservatorship that began when Oher—now 37—had just turned 18. However, it’s unclear whether this has already been put in motion. In a statement to The A.V. Club received Thursday afternoon, Marty Singer, attorney for the Touhys said, “Should Mr. Oher wish to terminate the conservatorship, either now or at anytime in the future, the Tuohys will never oppose it in any way.” Oher told us “For now, I will let the lawsuit speak for itself and will offer no
further comment,” while his attorney told us in a statement, “We believe that justice will be served in the
courtroom, and we hope to get there quickly.”

But while Oher alleged that he was tricked into the conservatorship while falsely believing that adoption was the intent, lawyers for the Tuohys said in Wednesday’s press conference that Oher clearly knew he had never been adopted: he wrote about the conservatorship three times in his 2011 memoir, I Beat The Odds: From Homeless, To The Blind Side, And Beyond. “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,’” he wrote (via New York Post).

Lawyers for the couple also alleged that Oher and the Tuohys have been estranged for about a decade and that this is “devastating for the family.”

While Oher alleges he never saw a penny from The Blind Side, the couple’s attorneys paint a different story. They say that agents negotiated “a small advance” split equally among a group that included Oher—about $100,000 apiece—and that the couple paid taxes on Oher’s portion.

“Michael got every dime, every dime he had coming,” Randall Fishman, one of the couple’s lawyers, said. “They don’t need his money,” added Steve Farese, another representative for the couple. “They’ve never needed his money. Mr. Tuohy sold his company for $220 million.”

This story has been updated to include a statement from Oher, his attorney, and the Tuohy’s attorney.

 
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