Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy want to end a conservatorship involving former NFL player Michael Oher, their lawyers said Wednesday.
Lawyer Randall Fishman said Other mentioned the Tuohy’s being conservators for him three times in his 2011 book, “I Beat The Odds: From Homeless, To The Blindside.” The Tuohys’ lawyers said Oher knew he had not been adopted despite the former players’ allegations in Tennessee court earlier this week.
The family intends to enter into a consent order to end the conservatorship, Fishman said.
The family’s attorney also said the Tuohys and Oher had been estranged for about a decade. Steve Farese said Oher had become “more and more vocal and more and more threatening” over the past decade or so, and this is “devastating for the family.”
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Michael Oher, left, Collins Tuohy, second from left, and Leigh Anne Tuohy, whose lives are portrayed in the Oscar-nominated movie “The Blind Side,” speak with Pastor Kerry Shook, right, March 3, 2010, at Woodlands Church’s Fellowship Campus in The Woodlands, Texas. (AP Photo/The Courier, Eric S. Swist, File)
A lawyer for Oher didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Oher filed a petition in Shelby County on Monday accusing the Tuohys of lying to him by having him sign papers to make them his conservators instead of his adoptive parents nearly 20 years ago.
The 37-year-old former NFL lineman is seeking a full accounting of his assets as his life story became a box office smash hit. He says he’s received nothing from the movie “The Blind Side.” He claimed the Tuohys falsely represented themselves as his adoptive parents and said he discovered this past February that the conservatorship was not the arrangement he thought it was.
Michael Singer, another attorney who represents the Tuohys, said Tuesday that Oher threatened to “plant” a negative story in the press about the family unless they paid him $15 million. Singer denied the allegations leveled against the Tuohy family in Oher’s petition to end their conservatorship, calling them “hurtful and absurd.”
Singer added that the family has been “upfront” about how and why the conservatorship was established and that they “will never oppose it in any way” if Oher chooses to terminate it.
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy stand on a street in New Orleans Feb. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
The conservatorship paperwork was filed months after Oher turned 18 in May 2004. Oher accused the family of never taking legal action to assume custody from the Tennessee Department of Human Serivces before he turned 18, though, he says he was forced to call them “Mom” and “Dad.”
Oher says he was “falsely advised” that it would be called a conservatorship because he was already 18, but that adoption was intent.
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Fishman said the couple didn’t adopt Oher because the conservatorship was the quickest way to satisfy the NCAA’s concerns the family wasn’t just steering him to Ole Miss to play football. It was the Tuohy’s alma mater.
As for the proceeds from the film go, the couple said agents negotiated a small advance for them from the production company for the film. They said that included a “tiny percentage of net profits” divided equally among a group that included Oher. Attorneys said they estimated the Oher and the family received $100,000 apiece and the couple paid taxes on the player’s portion for him.
Fishman said “Michael got every dime, every dime he had coming.”
Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Michael Oher sits on the team’s bench during the fourth quarter against the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 7, 2016. (Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The Tuohys said the conservatorship was set up to help Oher with health insurance, get a driver’s license and be admitted to college. In Tennessee, a conservatorship removes power from a person to make decisions for themselves. It’s often used in the case of a medical condition or a disability.
Oher’s petition said the conservatorship was approved “despite the fact that he was over 18 years old and had no diagnosed physical or psychological disabilities.”
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Oher was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He won a Super Bowl with the Ravens. He also played for the Carolina Panthers and Tennessee Titans.
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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