MEMPHIS, Tennessee, USA. (AP).- A prominent Memphis couple who have had a long relationship with former NFL player Michael Oher want to end the conservatorship that the athlete has challenged in court, an attorney said.
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy intend to accept an order ending the conservatorship, attorney Randall Fishman told reporters Wednesday.
Oher filed a petition in Tennessee probate court Monday, accusing the Tuohys of lying to him into signing documents making them guardians rather than adoptive parents nearly two decades ago.
The retired player, who is now 37, now wants a full accounting of assets, considering that the story about his life generated millions of dollars. Oher says he hasn’t gotten a penny from the Oscar-nominated movie “The Blind Side.”
He accuses the Tuohys of misrepresenting himself as his adoptive parents, stating that he discovered in February 2023 that guardianship was not the arrangement he assumed and established no family relationship between him and the Tuohys.
But lawyers for the Tuohys said Oher was well aware that he had not been adopted. Fishman said Oher mentioned the Tuohys as his guardian three times during the player’s first book “I Beat The Odds: From Homeless, To The Blind Side,” published in 2011.
Lawyers for the couple also said the Tuohys and Ohers have been estranged for about a decade. Steve Farese commented that Oher has become “more outgoing and threatening” over the past decade. He added that his current stance has been “devastating for the family.”
The Tuohys have viewed the allegations as a ludicrous attempt at “blackmail.” They have added that “a court is not the place to play,” Fishman said.
In a statement the lawyers released Tuesday, the Tuohys said that before going to court, Oher had threatened to plant a negative story about them in the press unless they paid him $15 million.
Oher’s lawyers did not immediately respond to messages left seeking comment.
