Sean Tuohy is firing back at Michael Oher … calling BS on all of the former NFL star’s “insulting” allegations — while insisting he and his family made little money off of the success of “The Blind Side.”
The 63-year-old — who was played by Tim McGraw in the 2009 hit movie — said he was “devastated” to learn that Oher had accused him and his wife, Leigh Anne, of exploiting him for fame and money in a court filing in Tennessee on Monday morning.
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‘Blind Side’ Inspo Michael Oher Says Tuohys Never Adopted Him, It Was Conservatorship
Tuohy told the Daily Memphian he never tricked Oher into getting into a conservatorship … and he certainly didn’t make millions off of it either.
Instead, Tuohy said the whole ordeal went down because the NCAA told him if Oher wanted to attend Ole Miss — he’d have to be considered part of the family due to Touhy’s status as a “booster” at the school.
“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,'” Tuohy said. “‘This would do that, legally.'”
He continued, “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.”
Tuohy then said he’d “of course” end the conservatorship if that’s what Oher wanted.
As for the allegations that Tuohy used the conservatorship to negotiate a big movie deal with Fox that netted massive profits for him and his family … Tuohy said that just simply never happened.
“We didn’t make any money off the movie,” Tuohy said. “Well, Michael Lewis [‘The Blind Side’ book author] gave us half of his share. Everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000, each.”
Tuohy says he was in no need of cash after he had sold his fast-food franchises for over $200 million.
“I will say it’s upsetting that people would think I would want to make money off any of my children,” he said.
Tuohy also told the outlet his family and Oher had remained very close in the years after the release of “The Blind Side” … though he began to notice a schism forming about a year and a half ago.
“No question, the allegations are insulting,” he said, “but, look, it’s a crazy world. You’ve got to live in it. It’s obviously upset everybody.”