Was ‘Blind Side’ A Lie? Michael Oher Says He Was Exploited
In 2009, Tim McGraw played Sean Tuohy, the husband of Sandra Bullock’s Oscar-award-winning performance of Leigh Anne Tuohy, in the huge blockbuster movie, The Blind Side.
The film tells the story of Michael Oher, an American football offensive lineman who overcame an impoverished upbringing to play in the National Football League (NFL) with the help of his adoptive parents, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy.
Now the movie’s subject, NFL football player Michael Oher, says in a newly released book and in a Tennessee court petition that a central element of the story was a lie concocted by the family to enrich itself at his expense.
The Shelby County filing also states that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, who took Oher into their home as a high school student, never adopted him. Instead, less than three months after Oher turned 18 in 2004, the petition alleges, the couple tricked him into signing a document making them his conservators, which gave them legal authority to make business deals in his name.
ESPN reports that the petition further alleges that the Tuohys used their “power as conservators” to strike a deal that paid them and their two birth children millions of dollars in royalties from a film while Oher got nothing for a story. The Oscar-winning movie earned more than $300 million.
In the past, the Tuohys, who have not committed to the suit, have denied making much money from the movie, saying they received a flat fee for the story and did not reap any of the movie’s profits.
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McGraw recently wrote his thoughts on many subjects in an article Esquire‘s “What I’ve Learned” feature. Tim discusses his family, his early life, and the fact that his wife, Faith Hill, helps him stay sober. McGraw quit drinking in 2008.
Tim says that people often ask him how he could have a relationship with his father, former pro baseball player Tug McGraw when he grew up without the “millionaire baseball player.” Tim didn’t know his father until he was twelve when his mom first told him who his dad was. McGraw said. “When I found out Tug McGraw was my dad, it gave me something in my little town in Louisiana, something that I would have never reached for. How could I ever be angry?”
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