Sean Tuohy and Leigh Anne Tuohy will no longer make any references about adopting Michael Oher on their websites and in their public speaking materials amid their ongoing legal battle.
According to The Associated Press, a lawyer for the couple, Randy Fishman, told the probate judge at a hearing Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, that any references about adopting Oher will be scrubbed immediately. Shelby County Probate Judge Kathleen Gomes applauded the move, saying that the removal of adoption references is the right thing to do.
On the couple’s website, Leigh Anne is touted as a champion for adoption, and her speaker’s fee, according to her bio in Speaker Booking Agency, ranges from $30,000 to $50,000.
The Tuohys decision to scrub all adoption references comes exactly two months after Oher’s request for the termination of a conservatorship was granted. The former NFL star who inspired the Oscar-nominated film The Blind Side had originally filed legal documents in August requesting the termination after alleging Leigh Anne and Sean lied about adopting him and tricked him into making them his conservators shortly after he turned 18.
Oher, whose story was first documented in Michael Lewis’ 2006 bestselling book of the same name, claimed the Tuohys made millions off his name while he never received a dime, after the film — starring Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron, Jae Head, Tim McGraw, Lily Collins and Kathy Bates — earned more than $300 million at the box office. The book and film are centered around the Tuohy family taking in Oher and helping transform his life on and off the field.
In response to Oher’s claims about money the family earned from The Blind Side, Sean told The Daily Memphian in August that “everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000 each.”
In September, the Tuohys responded to Oher’s claims, saying “they never intended to, and in fact never did, take any assumed legal custody” of Oher when they took him in as a teenager. Further, they “vehemently deny” that they told Oher “that they intended to legally adopt him.”
Even so, the Tuohys admit that they “occasionally referred to [Michael] as a son” and have “always felt [he] was like a son.” However, the Tuohys alleged that the word “son” was used “in the colloquial sense.”
Oher was an Ole Miss — the Tuohys’ alma mater — standout who became the 23rd overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens in April 2009. The Tuohys joined him onstage after the Ravens drafted him. He’d go on to make the Pro Football Writers Association All-Rookie team and win a Super Bowl ring as a starting right tackle after the Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers, 34-31, in Super Bowl XLVII. He’d also appear in Super Bowl 50 as a starting left tackle (covering “the blind side”) with the Carolina Panthers, who lost to the Denver Broncos, 24-10.
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