Why Is Michael Oher Suing Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy? Inside His Lawsuit Against the Family fromThe Blind Side

Mar. 15, 2025

Michael Oher #74 of the Ole Miss Rebels stands with Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy during senior ceremonies prior to a game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on November 28, 2008 in Oxford, Mississippi.Photo:Matthew Sharpe/Getty

Matthew Sharpe/Getty

Michael Oher’s inspirational story of how he became an NFL player was memorialized in 2009’sThe Blind Side. However, the Oscar-nominated movie didn’t capture the whole picture.

The retired NFL tackle sued Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy in August 2023, alleging that theytricked him into signing conservatorship paperswhen he was 18, claiming it was the same as adoption. In his petition, he also alleged that while each member of the Tuohy family — including Sean and Leigh Anne’s kids, Collins and Sean Jr. — received $225,000 from the profits of the film plus 2.5% of the movie’s proceeds, he earned nothing.

A month after his filing, Tennessee judge Kathleen Gomesterminated the Tuohy’s conservatorshipof Oher, telling ESPN that she could not believe “it got done” in the first place seeing as Oher was never mentally or physically disabled.

Now married and a father of four kids, Oheropened up for the first timeabout the lawsuit in an August 2024 interview withTheNew York Times Magazine, telling the outlet that though the legal proceedings are ongoing, he is ready to return to his normal life.

“I want to be the person I was beforeThe Blind Side, personality-wise,” he said. “I’m still working on it.”

So why is Michael Oher suing Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy? Here’s everything to know aboutThe Blind Sideinspiration’s lawsuit and how the Tuohy family has responded.

Why is Oher suing Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy?

Baltimore Ravens #23 draft pick Michael Oher poses for a photograph with his family at Radio City Music Hall for the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25, 2009 in New York City.Jeff Zelevansky/Getty

Jeff Zelevansky/Getty

Oher filed a lawsuit against Sean and Leigh Anne seeking to end a conservatorship, alleging that they had lied about adopting him while making millions off his name.

“Michael trusted the Tuohys and signed where they told him to sign,” the legal filing claimed. “What he signed, however, and unknown to Michael until after February 2023, were not adoption papers, or the equivalent of adoption papers.”

Typically, an adult receives a conservatorship if they have “physical or psychological disabilities,” per the filing, which Oher, who was 18 at the time of the 2004 conservatorship signing, did not display.

The 2004 filing said that Sean and Leigh Anne had “all powers of attorney to act on his behalf” and that Oher “shall not be allowed to enter into any contracts or bind himself without the direct approval of his conservators.”

However, after the movie was released, Oher started to distance himself from the family as he did not agree with the film’s portrayal of him as unintelligent. He also claims he was the only member of the family not receiving royalty payments, his attorney, J. Gerard Stranch IV, toldESPN. The Tuohys' lawyers have saidthat Oher had been receiving royalty checks, though he denied this.

“Mike didn’t grow up with a stable family life. When the Tuohy family told Mike they loved him and wanted to adopt him, it filled a void that had been with him his entire life,” Stranch told the outlet. “Discovering that he wasn’t actually adopted devastated Mike and wounded him deeply.”

What happened after Oher’s lawsuit?

Michael Oher visits SiriusXM at SiriusXM Studios on August 09, 2023 in New York City.Roy Rochlin/Getty

Roy Rochlin/Getty

In a statement issued to PEOPLE, the Tuohy family’s attorney Martin Singer said the Tuohy family “opened their home to Mr. Oher, offered him structure, support, and most of all, unconditional love.”

“His response was to threaten them, including saying that he would plant a negative story about them in the press unless they paid him $15 million,” the statement claimed.

The statement also alleged that Oher had previously “attempted to run this play” several times before.

A month after his filing, Judge Gomes terminated Oher’s conservatorship with the Tuohy family. She toldESPNthat she was disturbed that such an agreement had been put into action in the first place, and that in her 43-year career, she had never seen a conservatorship agreement reached for someone who was not disabled.

How did the Tuohys respond to Oher’s lawsuit?

Sean Tuohy and Leigh Anne Tuohy attend the Bloomberg/Vanity Fair party following the 2010 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on May 1, 2010 in Washington, DC.Dimitrios Kambouris/VF1/WireImage

Dimitrios Kambouris/VF1/WireImage

The Tuohys denied withholding any money from Oher and claimed they were always “upfront” about the details of his conservatorship, per their attorney.

The attorney also claimed that the “Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from” the film, all of which has apparently been “documented in profit participation checks and studio accounting statements,” per Singer’s statement.

The statement also alleged that the Tuohys did not oppose ending the conservatorship, which they said was established “to assist with Mr. Oher’s needs, ranging from getting him health insurance and obtaining a driver’s license to helping with college admissions.”

In an interview with theDaily Memphianin August 2023, Sean told the outlet that theallegations were “insulting,”but the family was determined to continue supporting Oher in his wishes.

“We’re devastated,” Sean said. “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 also claimed that the conservatorship was created so Oher could play football at the University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss, where Sean was an alumni.

“Michael was obviously living with us for a long time, and the NCAA didn’t like that,” Sean told theDaily Memphian. “They said the only way Michael could go to Ole Miss was if he was actually part of the family. I sat Michael down and told him, ‘If you’re planning to go to Ole Miss — or even considering Ole Miss — we think you have to be part of the family. This would do that, legally.’

He continued, “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.”

In September 2023, the Tuohys also filed that there was“never an intent to adopt”Oher and that they “never signed any contract” on the former Baltimore Ravens tackle’s behalf.

They also denied withholding money from Oher, claiming they split the profits from the movie equally between all five members of the family.

However, the case took a turn when in December 2023, Sean and Leigh Anne submitted a legal filing alleging that Oher extorted them for millions of dollars and threatened them. In the filing, they included screenshots of messages in which Oher calls the pair “thieves” and threatened to go public with his story.

“It was 10 million now I want 15 after taxes,” another text allegedly from Oher read.

Oher did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment about the filing at the time.

What has Oher said about the lawsuit since filing?

Michael Oher sits on the team’s bench during the fourth quarter against the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2015.Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service/Getty

Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service/Getty

“This is a difficult situationfor my family and me. I want to ask everyone to please respect our privacy at this time,” he said in the statement. “For now, I will let the lawsuit speak for itself and will offer no further comment.”

Three months later, in November 2023, Oherfiled an objection to the Tuohys accountingthat claimed the couple transferred $138,311.01 in 10 installments to the former NFL star beginning in 2007.

Oher’s objection accuses Sean and Leigh Anne of “willful failure to fulfill their obligations to the Court” and claims the documents submitted in their accounting filing are “contradictory, confusing, fake in material ways, and wholly inadequate to account for the assets.”

A year after his initial lawsuit, Oher reflected on his time living with the wealthy Memphis-based family in an interview withThe New York Times Magazineand why he felt like they had deceived him.

“The first time I heard ‘I love you,’ it was Sean and Leigh Anne [Tuohy] saying it. When that happens at 18, you become vulnerable,” he told the magazine. “You let your guard down and then you get everything stripped from you. It turns into a hurt feeling.”

He continued, “I don’t want to make this about race, but what I found out was that nobody says ‘I love you’ more than coaches and white people. When Black people say it, they mean it.”

Oher added that he still looked back on his time with the Tuohy family fondly, saying he was grateful that he had a bed to sleep in and was eating well. However, the portrayal of him inThe Blind Sideas an unintelligent person harmed him professionally, he said, causing higher-ups in the NFL to question if he could even read a playbook.

“I started seeing stuff that I’m dumb. I’m stupid,” Oher told the outlet. “Every article about me mentionedThe Blind Side, like it was part of my name.”

Where are Oher and the Tuohys now?

The Tuohy family and Oher in 2017.Leigh Anne Tuohy/ Instagram

Leigh Anne Tuohy/ Instagram

In November 2022, Ohermarried his longtime partnerTiffany Roy, with whom he already sharedfour children. In his August 2024 interview, Oher admitted that he worries that his portrayal inThe Blind Sidecould adversely affect his own children.

“If my kids can’t do something in class, will their teacher think, ‘Their dad is dumb — is that why they’re not getting it?’ " he said.

As for his lawsuit against the Tuohys, the legal proceedings are still ongoing.

source: people.com