Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy said in court filings Monday that Michael Oher allegedly sent “menacing” text messages to them calling them “thieves” and demanding they send him $15 million.
The filing alleges that Oher demanded money or he would make their financial dispute public, ABC reported.
The dispute began over payments to the Tuohys and Oher for their participation in the movie, “The Blind Side,” which told the story of Oher’s life and how he came to live with the Memphis couple.
The Tuohys, the family at the center of the hit 2009 film "The Blind Side" and the 2006 book on which the film was based, are now accusing Michael Oher, the man whom they say they treated like a son, of threatening to extort them.
— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 5, 2023
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In the filing, the Tuohys said Oher “should be denied” a motion for a temporary injunction in the case. The filing went on to say that the family does not owe him any money from the movie, People reported.
In an attached exhibit to the filing, the Tuohys’ shared screenshots of some of the texts they allege Oher sent to extort money from the family.
“If something isn’t resolved this Friday, I’m going to go ahead and tell the world, how I was robbed by my suppose to be [sic] parents. That’s the deadline,” one alleged text from Oher reads. “It was 10 million now I want 15 after taxes,” another alleged text reads.
The filing did not include any responses to the emails from the Tuohy family.
Oher has filed petitions with the court claiming he was misled about his relationship with the Tuohys.
Oher said the Tuohys misled him into thinking they adopted him when they had actually entered into a conservatorship agreement with him in 2004, when he was 18, the AP reported.
The couple answered the allegations in a court filing in September, saying that they did not make money off Oher’s name nor had they ever intended to adopt him.
In September, a judge ended the conservatorship, which allowed the Tuohys to control Oher’s finances.
Despite the termination of the conservatorship, Oher alleged in a court filing on Aug. 14 that the family had cut him out of the profits of “The Blind Side.”
Oher said in the filing that the family had said they would adopt him but instead placed him in a conservatorship and took money the movie earned and kept it for themselves.
The Tuohys answered in court that the profits from the movie had been split between the couple, their children and Oher – all of whom were portrayed in the film.
Oher claimed in his petition that the Tuohys had contract negotiations with 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios) regarding the creation of “The Blind Side” movie, based on the book, “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game” by Michael Lewis. The Tuohy’s denied that claim.
The production company that financed the movie said that its subjects, Oher and members of the Tuohy family, were collectively paid approximately $767,000 delivered through their talent.
The Tuohys have called the claims they enriched themselves at his expense outlandish, hurtful and absurd and part of a “shakedown” by Oher.
