‘Blind Side’ Subject Michael Oher Speaks Out amid Legal Claims: ‘Difficult Situation for My Family and Me’

Former NFL player Michael Oher has released a statement after he filed a legal petition to terminate a conservatorship, in which he alleges Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy lied about adopting him while making millions off his name.

On Monday, Oher, 37, filed a petition claiming that the Tuohy family did not legally adopt him but tricked him into making them his conservators before earning millions from his falsified life story, which was depicted in the film The Blind Side.

“I am disheartened by the revelation shared in the lawsuit today,” Oher said in a statement issued to PEOPLE by a representative for the former NFL player.

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

According to the petition, filed on August 14 at Shelby County Probate Court and obtained by PEOPLE, Oher alleges he unknowingly authorized the couple to be his conservators in 2004 when he was 18 years old.

Scott Cunningham / Getty Images

Sean Tuohy Speaks Out About ‘Blind Side’ Subject Michael Oher’s Legal Claims: ‘The Allegations Are Insulting’

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

Sean Tuohy Instagram

Sean Tuohy Jr., the son of the family featured in the 2009 film, spoke to Barstool Sports on Monday after the petition was filed.

“I completely understand,” Tuohy Jr. said in the interview when asked why he thought Oher is upset. But he vigorously rebutted Oher’s allegation that he and his family made “$2 million” off the film.

“Man, if I had $2 million in my bank account, it would be in my email signature and say, ‘Signed, SJ Tuohy, multi-millionaire,’ ” said Tuohy, adding that friends were sending him links to articles and “roasting” him in a group chat.

Son in ‘Blind Side’ Family Says He Gets Why Michael Oher ‘Is Mad’ but Denies He Has ‘Millions’

Grossing more than $300 million at the box office, the sports drama film starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw as Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy was based on a book written by Michael Lewis and released in 2006 titled The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game.

Oher alleges in his legal petition Monday that all four members of the Tuohy family were paid $225,000 for the film plus 2.5% of the film’s proceeds in residual checks, which he says he does not receive.

Sean Tuohy, the patriarch of the family, also spoke out Monday to the Daily Memphian and insisted the conservatorship that prompted the filing of Monday’s petition was unrelated to the movie. Rather, he claims, it was a way to appease the NCAA, the nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics, when it appeared Oher was likely to play football at the University of Mississippi.

Scott Cunningham/Getty

“Michael was obviously living with us for a long time, and the NCAA didn’t like that,” Sean told the Daily 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.’ 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.”

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Oher alleges in the petition that the conservatorship papers he wound up signing instead gave the Tuohys “total control” over Oher’s ability to sign contracts. His filing claims the Tuohy family “falsely and publicly represented themselves” as Oher’s adoptive parents, which led to the story depicted in the book and movie.

Oher recently learned he was the only member of the family not receiving royalty checks from the film, his attorney J. Gerard Stranch IV claimed to ESPN. Oher hired Stranch to look into the discrepancy, the attorney said, which led him to uncovering the conservatorship papers this past February.”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 claimed to the outlet. “Discovering that he wasn’t actually adopted devastated Mike and wounded him deeply.”

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