The Blind Side Is A LIE?! Michael Oher Claims He Was Exploited & Never Adopted By Wealthy White Family!

WHOA.

Fans of The Blind Side higher buckle up. The IRL folks whose lives have been inspiration for the Oscar successful movie a couple of rich, white household adopting a poverty-stricken Black teenager is now coming underneath fireplace for allegedly LYING about the entire thing!

On Monday, Michael Oher, the retired NFL star who impressed the 2009 movie, filed an explosive petition in Shelby County, Tennessee probate court docket, alleging the primary storyline of the film was a lie the household created to complement themselves! The 14-page court docket submitting, obtained by ESPN, claimed Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy (performed by Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock, respectively) by no means truly adopted Michael. Instead, lower than three months after the athlete turned 18 in 2004, he claims they tricked him into signing a doc making them his conservators — giving them authorized authority over all his funds!

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The dad and mom then allegedly used their energy to strike shady enterprise offers for his or her household and their two beginning kids, which allowed them to gather hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in royalties from the favored film (which earned greater than $300 million), all whereas the true star of the flick earned nothing! Damn!

They then continued to consult with the 37-year-old as their adopted son whereas selling their basis and by way of Leigh Anne’s work as an writer and motivational speaker, all of which earned them extra cash. Shockingly, Michael says he didn’t notice the complete extent of all of it till February of THIS yr! The authorized submitting acknowledged:

“The lie of Michael’s adoption is one upon which Co-Conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy have enriched themselves at the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher. Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys.”

Jeez. So, what’s the actual story?

According to the petition, the offensive sort out did have a difficult upbringing as he was certainly one of 12 kids with a mom who struggled with drug dependancy. Before his eleventh birthday, he was positioned into foster care, bouncing round between dwelling in unusual houses and dwelling on the streets. Unlike how the film portrayed him, although, he was truly a succesful scholar (however he did must repeat first and second grades after shifting round faculties a lot which set him again academically).

Despite this, a buddy’s father noticed potential in him and launched the teenager to the principal at a non-public Christian faculty in Memphis, which he started attending within the tenth grade — the place he met the Tuohys. He shortly shined as a sports activities prodigy and started taking part in soccer in eleventh grade. As faculty scholarship affords began arriving, the Tuohys shaped a more in-depth bond with him due to their youngsters being on the similar faculty. After spending most nights at their residence and being handled to buying sprees, Leigh Anne and Sean inspired him to name them “mom” and “dad,” claiming they deliberate to undertake him.

Michael was thrilled on the time as a result of he totally trusted the household, per his lawyer. When he was a rising highschool senior, the dad and mom had him signal conservatorship papers, he recalled in his 2011 guide I Beat the Odds:

“They explained to me that 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.”

Except that’s apparently not true?! If Michael had actually been adopted, he would have retained the facility to deal with his monetary affairs. Instead, he signed these rights away although he had no identified bodily or psychological incapacity which may usually warrant a conservatorship. The petition goes on to say the Tuohys started negotiating a film deal shortly after the discharge of the 2006 guide The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. Per the submitting, the movie paid Sean and Leigh Anne plus their two beginning kids every $225,000 and a pair of.5% of the movie’s “defined net proceeds.” Considering it was up for Best Picture on the Academy Awards and Sandra received Best Actress, this was a really profitable deal!!!

Sadly, Micheal WASN’T profiting off the movie! Instead, he reportedly signed one other contract in 2007 to “give away” the life rights to his story “without any payment whatsoever”to twentieth Century Fox Studios.

WHAT?!

The court docket docs declare he has no recollection of signing the papers, and even when he did, no one advised him the implications.

That’s tousled!

Worse? The deal lists the 4 Tuohy members of the family as having the identical rep from Creative Artists Agency, however Michael’s agent — who acquired the film contract and cost notices — was listed as Debra Branan, an in depth buddy of the household’s and the identical lawyer who filed the 2004 conservatorship petition. Damn.

In the previous, the household has claimed they didn’t earn a lot from the sports activities drama, insisting they acquired a flat price for the story and didn’t earn any royalties. They additionally wrote of their 2010 guide, In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving, that they “divided” the cash “five ways.” None of this seems to be true, per the Baltimore Ravens participant’s new lawsuit.

When he requested his household why he by no means earned any cash from the film regardless of suspicions others have been profiting, he claims he by no means acquired a straight reply, per legal professional J. Gerard Stranch IV. Since his profession was taking off on the time in 2009, he delay a correct investigation till after he retired in 2016. That’s when he employed a lawyer who uncovered the horrifying particulars.

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The lawyer shared:

“Mike’s relationship with the Tuohy family started to decline when he discovered that he was portrayed in the movie as unintelligent. Their relationship continued to deteriorate as he learned that he was the only member of the family not receiving royalty checks from the movie, and it was permanently fractured when he realized he wasn’t adopted and a part of the family.”

Reiterating how devastating this has been for the athlete, his lawyer continued:

“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. Discovering that he wasn’t actually adopted devastated Mike and wounded him deeply.”

It’s so f**ked up! Also, the false narrative about his intelligence within the film has truly damage his soccer profession! In 2015, he advised ESPN:

“People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie. They don’t really see the skills and the kind of player I am.”

For their half, the Tuohys have agreed he had what it took to succeed with out their assist. Still, they allowed that narrative to make it to the display screen! In his new guide When Your Back’s Against the Wall, which was launched simply final week, the writer appeared to hit on the household scandal, writing:

“There has been so much created from The Blind Side that I am grateful for, which is why you might find it as a shock that the experience surrounding the story has also been a large source of some of my deepest hurt and pain over the past 14 years. […] Beyond the details of the deal, the politics, and the money behind the book and movie, it was the principle of the choices some people made that cut me the deepest.”

He is now asking the court docket to finish the conservatorship and to situation an injunction barring the Tuohys from utilizing his title and likeness. He’s additionally in search of a full accounting of the cash they earned utilizing his title and requesting to have the couple pay him his fair proportion of the income. Furthermore, he’d like an unspecified quantity of compensatory and punitive damages. At this time, the Tuohy household has not commented on the authorized submitting. Wow. What a really unhappy and stunning state of affairs! Reactions? Sound OFF (under)!

[Image via The Jim Rome Show/Warner Bros/YouTube & Leigh Anne Tuohy/Instagram]