Michael Oher, whose story was dramatized in the 2009 film, claims in a lawsuit that he was never really adopted by the family that took him in and was duped into signing away his decision-making powers when he was 18.
Michael Oher, the former NFL player whose journey from poverty to football stardom was depicted in the 2009 film “The Blind Side,” asked a Tennessee court on Monday to formally end his legal relationship with the family who took him in, claiming that he was never adopted and had been duped into signing away his decision-making powers so the family could profit from his life story.
Oher, 37, is trying to end the conservatorship that began when he was 18, as well as money he claims he should have earned from the film, as well as an injunction prohibiting Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy from exploiting his name and likeness.
The petition, filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, argues that while he believed he was being adopted, the Tuohys pressured him to sign a conservatorship agreement, giving up his freedom to enter into contracts. The lawsuit also alleges that Oher, who began living with the Tuohys at the age of 16, unwittingly signed away the rights to his life story to 20th Century Fox in 2007.
J. Gerard Stranch IV, Oher’s lawyer, declined to comment on what was revealed in the.
The Tuohys negotiated a contract of $225,000 plus 2.5 percent of future “defined net proceeds” for themselves and their biological children for the smash film “The Blind Side,” starring Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy, and Quinton Aaron as Oher, according to the lawsuit.
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