'Blind Side' Star Claims Major Aspect Of His Story Was A Lie

Michael Oher, the former Ole Miss football star whose life was the focal point of the hit movie "The Blind Side," claims a central aspect of the famous story was a lie.

The former NFL Draft first round pick claims he wasn't actually adopted, but rather tricked by the Tuohy family.

"The 14-page petition, filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, probate court, alleges that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, who took Oher into their home as a high school student, never adopted him. Instead, less than three months after Oher turned 18 in 2004, the petition says, the couple tricked him into signing a document making them his conservators, which gave them legal authority to make business deals in his name," ESPN reports.

"The petition further alleges that the Tuohys used their power as conservators to strike the deal that paid them and their two birth children millions of dollars in royalties from an Oscar-winning film that earned more than $300 million, while Oher got nothing for a story "that would not have existed without him." In the years since, the Tuohys have continued calling the 37-year-old Oher their adopted son and have used that assertion to promote their foundation as well as Leigh Anne Tuohy's work as an author and motivational speaker."

The movie, which starred Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw, was a major blockbuster. 

However, Oher doesn't appear to stand by it.

"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," the legal filing said. "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."

Oher retired from the NFL in 2016.