More details continue to emerge about the horrifying situation surrounding Michael Oher. Oher, who played in the NFL was 2009 to 2016, was made famous by his life story. His inspiring story served as the basis for the Oscar-winning film, The Blind Side. Oher, who is Black, was adopted by the white Tuohy family after they met him at an elite Memphis private school attended by their biological children.
However, Oher has claimed this week that he was never legally adopted by the Tuohy family. Instead, he claims he was tricked into entering into a conservatorship. That arrangement gave the Tuohys full financial control over his life and life story. Oher, 37, is seeking an end to the conservatorship as well as financial restitution. The Tuohy family has not denied the arrangement, but calls Oher's lawsuit "insulting". Furthermore, the family has alleged that Oher demanded $15 million from them before filing the lawsuit.
Read More: The Blind Side controversy explained
Oher Referenced Conservatorship In Memoir
However, a major point of contention about Oher's claims that he only discovered the truth in February of 2023 is a passage from his 2011 memoir. In I Beat The Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond, Oher directly referenced the conservatorship. "Sean and Leigh Anne would be named as my 'legal conservators. They explained to me that it means pretty much the exact same thing as 'adoptive parents,' but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account. Honestly, I didn't care what it was called. I was just happy that no one could argue that we weren't legally what we already knew was real: We were a family."
This is being used as some sort of gotcha that Oher was fully aware of the situation he was in. However, let's break this text down. "Sean and Leigh Anne would be named as my 'legal conservators. They explained to me that it means pretty much the exact same thing as 'adoptive parents,' but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account." Oher's claim is that he was tricked into signing a conservatorship. This is 13-year-old proof of that. There are huge legal differences between adoption and legal conservatorship. Telling an 18-year-old with little legal knowledge that they are "pretty much the exact same thing" is indeed tricking them into signing a document that benefits you and not them. This is a developing story.
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