Tuohy family removes reference to Michael Oher being adopted in ‘Blind Side’ legal fight

Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy will remove any reference to former NFL player Michael Oher being their adopted son from their websites and public speaking materials as legal action between Oher and the Tuohys continue, The Associated Press reported.

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Randy Fishman told a Memphis probate judge Thursday that mentions of Oher being adopted by the couple would be removed from the websites immediately.

According to Oher, references to him being adopted had been a key argument in his efforts to force the Tuohys to account for money made from the film “The Blind Side.”

“The Blind Side” focuses on Oher’s life story and how he came to live with the Tuohys.

Oher said the Tuohys misled him into thinking they adopted him when they had actually entered into a conservatorship agreement with him in 2004, when he was 18, the AP reported.

The couple said in a court filing in September that they did not make money off Oher’s name nor had they ever intended to adopt him.

In September, a judge ended the conservatorship, which allowed the Tuohys to control Oher’s finances.

Despite the termination of the conservatorship, Oher alleged in a court filing on Aug. 14 that the family had cut him out of the profits of “The Blind Side.”

Oher, 39, said in the filing that the family had said they would adopt him but instead placed him in a conservatorship and took money the movie earned and kept it for themselves.

The Tuohys answered in court that the profits from the movie had been split between the couple, their children and Oher.

Oher requested that the court end the conservatorship. The Tuohys said then that they were “ready, willing, and able to terminate the conservatorship by consent at any time.”

Oher had claimed that he did not know about the conservatorship but believed that the Tuohys were planning to adopt him. He also claimed that he only learned in February that he had been placed in a conservatorship and hadn’t actually been adopted.

Oher claimed in his petition that the Tuohys had contract negotiations with 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios) regarding the creation of “The Blind Side” movie, based on the book “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game” by Michael Lewis. The Tuohy’s denied that claim.

The production company that financed the movie said that its subjects, Oher and members of the Tuohy family, were collectively paid approximately $767,000 delivered through their talent.

In addition to defending the film’s authenticity, Alcon Entertainment co-founders and co-CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove said the deal for the Tuohys’ and Oher’s life rights “was consistent with the marketplace at that time for the rights of relatively unknown individuals.”

“Therefore,” a statement from Alcon Entertainment said, “it did not include significant payouts in the event of the film’s success.” Johnson and Kosove added, “As a result, the notion that the Tuohys were paid millions of dollars by Alcon to the detriment of Michael Oher is false.”

The Tuohys have called the claims they enriched themselves at his expense outlandish, hurtful and absurd and part of a “shakedown” by Oher.