Sean Tuohy Jr, the son of the family featured in Blind Side, has spoken out over the allegations made by Michael Oher that he was never legally adopted by the family.
Former NFL star Michael Oher has filed a lawsuit against the Tuohy family, as he alleged he was never adopted by them and that the family used his life story to profit from him instead.
The movie in question - The Blind Side - tells the true story of Oher, a foster child in Tennessee, and how he was adopted by a wealthy white couple which allowed him to bloom into a star college athlete and NFL star.
The Blind Side's release coincided with Oher's start in the National Football League, where he played eight seasons, most prominently with the Baltimore Ravens.
The film, which was based on the 2006 book of the same name, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and won Sandra Bullock, in the role of mom Leigh Anne Tuohy, an Academy Award.
Advert
In recent court documents, however, Oher has alleged that his 'adoptive parents' Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy made millions of dollars from his name.
Contrary to the film’s happy story, Oher alleges that Sean and Leigh Anne's adoption never actually took place and that they 'tricked him' into signing a document making them his conservators.
This, in turn, allowed the pair to have legal authority to make business deals in his name.
Advert
The Oscar-winning movie earned more than $300 million at the box office, while Oher himself received nothing, as reported by ESPN - despite the fact the story 'would not have existed without him'.
The Tuohys and their two birth children went on to receive '$225,000' plus '2.5 percent' of the film's 'defined net proceeds', according to the lawsuit.
Now, Sean Tuohy Jr - Oher's 'adoptive brother' - has spoken out and explained that he 'completely understands' why the football star is upset, but denied that he and his family had ever made a reported $2 million from using Oher's story for the 2009 film.
Advert
In an interview with Barstool Sports, he said: “Man, if I had $2 million in my bank account, it would be in my email signature and say, ‘Signed, SJ Tuohy, multi-millionaire’."
But Dave Portnoy, the founder and owner of the popular sports blog, responded: “Somebody clearly is making a ton of the money off that movie, and he’s not seeing any of it — listen, if someone made a movie that I thought was about me, and I see it sold $300 million [at the] box office and I don’t see anything, I could see how that would upset me.”
Tuohy Jr then said: "I get why he's mad, I completely understand. It stinks that it'll play on a very public stage, but I think there was 16 years of... people that took positives from the movie, and people think negative of it."
Sean Tuohy Sr also spoke to The Daily Memphian, explaining that he never tricked Oher into anything and the family didn't earn much money off his story.
Advert
He said: “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."
He added: "We didn’t make any money off the movie. 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."
Advert
He concluded: “No question, the allegations are insulting. But, look, it's a crazy world.
"You've got to live in it. It's obviously upset everybody.”
Topics: Celebrity, NFL, Sport, US News, The Blind Side, Michael Oher
Niamh Spence