The story that inspired the Oscar-winning film The blind side Monday took another dramatic turn, as Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy accused Michael Oher of extorting millions of dollars from them and threatening them if they didn’t send him money.
In a legal filing Monday, attorneys for Sean, 64, and Leigh Anne, 63, shared screenshots of alleged text messages sent to them by Oher, 37, calling them “thieves” and demanding they send him more than $15 million or otherwise it would have gone public with their dispute over the financial earnings of the 2009 film.
In a legal response Monday, the Tuohys said Oher’s request for a temporary restraining order in the case “should be denied” if the family does not owe him more money and asserted that the now-retired NFL star repeatedly threatened Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy with “threatening ” text messages and emails that claimed millions. In a filing Monday, Tuohy’s attorneys shared screenshots of some of the texts they say Oher used to allegedly extort the family.
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“If something is not resolved this Friday, I will go ahead and tell the world how I was robbed by my alleged [sic] parents. It’s the deadline,” reads one purported message from Oher. “It was 10 million and now I want 15 after tax,” reads another alleged message.
The Tuohy family did not include their responses to Oher in the screenshots provided in Monday’s filings. Oher did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on the filing. A representative for the Tuohys pointed PEOPLE to the court documents when asked for comment.
“Needless to say, the threatening demands were shocking and hurtful to the Tuohys, who have always treated Mr. Oher with kindness and love,” attorneys for the Tuohy family wrote in a Monday filing.
However, Oher’s recent filings challenged that sentiment.
Michael Oher.
Scott Cunningham/Getty
Oher said in August that he recently discovered that the Tuohy family never legally adopted him and that he believes the family knowingly pocketed the money owed to him from the film.
Oher claimed he learned earlier this year that he had been placed in the custody of the Tuohys when he was 18, in what his lawyers described as a difficult revelation for the now father-of-two.
“Mike did not grow up with a stable family life,” his attorney, J. Gerard Stranch IV, told ESPN in August. “When the Tuohy family told Mike they loved him and wanted to adopt him, it filled a void that had been with him his whole life. The discovery that he wasn’t actually adopted devastated Mike and hurt him deeply.”
The conservatorship gave the Tuohys continued control over Oher’s financial and medical decisions — a “cryptic” legal action usually reserved for adults who are medically unable to make decisions for themselves and need a guardian, legal experts previously told PEOPLE. The conservatorship was terminated in September, but Oher still demanded that the family submit an accounting of his earnings The blind side record and pay him the alleged remaining amount of money he believes he still owes. He also called the decision to split the profits between himself, the Tuoyhs and their two children unfair.
His November 30 petition claims, “Without Mr. Oher, there would be no film. The Tuohys had it the other way around: 80% of the proceeds were to go to the petitioner and 20% to the Tuohy family.” Despite the court’s legal obligation, the Tuohys have never filed an accounting of Oher’s finances since he agreed to be under conservatorship in 2004.
When they finally did last month, the Tuohys claimed they transferred $138,311.01 to Oher in ten installments starting in 2007. Family accounting claims the last payment of $8,480.10 was made to Oher on April 17, 2023. The couple says in a filing dated Monday that after Oher began refusing payments, they transferred his funds to a bank account in the name of his son, Michael Oher Jr.
The film grossed over $330 million at the box office, plus more as the film became even more famous when it was nominated for Best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards and Sandra Bullock won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Leigh Anne.
Oher later objected to the Tuohys’ accounting, saying the documents they filed last month were “contradictory, confusing, false in material ways and wholly inadequate to show the assets.”
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The Tuohy family and Michael Oher (centre).
Leigh Anne Tuohy/ Instagram
Michael Oher demands the Tuohys stop using his name and claiming they ‘adopted’ him, according to court documents
Since Oher’s first legal filing in August publicly revealing that he was not actually adopted, the Tuohys have defended their public presentation of their relationship with the former NFL star. Sean Tuohy said for The Daily Memphian in August that he and Leigh Anne were “devastated” by Oher’s public accusations and lawsuits, saying it was “disturbing to think we would make money off of any of our children.”
He also called out Oher’s accusations that the family was siphoning off money owed to him The blind side “offensive.”
Since Oher’s original filing in August, lawyers for the Tuohys have argued that the couple never intended to describe their relationship with Oher as his literal adoptive parents — despite doing so publicly for years, including in Leigh Anne’s published books.
“The use of the term ‘adopted’ was always intended in a colloquial sense to describe the familial relationship the Tuohys felt with Mr. Oher,” the family’s attorneys wrote in a Monday filing, adding that “it was never intended as a legal term. ”
In a September filing, the Tuohys claimed there was “never any intent to adopt” Oher into their family and said the guardianship was arranged as a way to circumvent NCAA recruiting rules so Oher could attend the University of Mississippi, Sean Tuohy’s alma mater, to play college football without violating the eligibility rules.
Oher was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in 2009 and played eight seasons in the NFL, becoming a Super Bowl champion in 2013.
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