Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy’s attorneys have claimed that their clients are not currently in touch with Michael Oher amid his lawsuit.
“He’s been estranged probably since for the last 10 years and becoming more and more vocal and more and more threatening,” Steven Farese alleged during a Wednesday, August 16, press conference.
While Farese claimed that the Tuohys have not spoken to Oher, 37, in years, their son Sean “SJ” Tuohy Jr. told a different tale earlier this week.
“I want to preface this by saying I loved Mike at 16, I love [Michael] now at 37, and I’ll love him at 67,” SJ, 30, said during a Monday, August 14, appearance on Barstool Radio. “If he says he learned that in February, I find that hard to believe. [I went back to] our family group texts … to see what things have been said. And there’s things back in 2020, 2021 [that] were like, you know, ‘If you guys give me this much, then I won’t go public with things.’ And so I don’t know if that’s true.”
The Blind Side’s Michael Oher and the Tuohy Family: Where Are They Now?
Us Weekly confirmed several hours earlier on Monday that Oher — a former Baltimore Ravens football player — named Leigh Anne and Sean, both 63, in a lawsuit, claiming that they never legally adopted him and instead convinced him to give them legal authority over any potential business deals. Oher alleged that he only learned about the conservatorship earlier this year and is now seeking to terminate the guardianship.
Oher, who grew up in foster care, was taken in by the Tuohys when he was a teenager. Their story was told in the Oscar-winning movie The Blind Side. According to Oher’s legal filing, he is seeking a share of the profits and royalties that Leigh Anne, Sean and their family received from the adaptation. Both Sean and SJ, however, have since denied earning millions from the film.
“Man, if I had $2 million in my bank account, it would be in my email signature and say, ‘Signed, SJ Tuohy, multi-millionaire,’” SJ told the Barstool hosts on Monday. “I get it, why he’s mad. I completely understand. It stinks that it’ll play out on a very public stage. … You will never hear me say anything bad about Michael Oher in any capacity other than I’m upset that he feels the way that he does. I think some of the things that were mentioned in the probate or book or whatever I don’t necessarily agree with and or remember happening like that.”
What Michael Oher Had Said About the Tuohy Family Before Lawsuit
Another attorney for the Tuohys, Randall Fishman, noted on Wednesday that “each member of the family” — Leigh Anne and Sean also share daughter Collins — received the “same amount” of royalties from the film, which they estimated to be $100,000 each.
A third lawyer for the Tuohys, Marty Singer, denied that Leigh Anne and Sean “tricked” Oher into the conservatorship in a Tuesday, August 15, statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
“They have consistently treated [Michael] like a son and one of their three children,” Singer said. “His response was to threaten them, including saying that he would plant a negative story about them in the press unless they paid him $15 million.”
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Oher has since spoken out about the backlash to his legal battle. “I am disheartened by the revelation shared in the lawsuit today,” he told the New York Post in a statement later on Monday. “This is a difficult situation for my family and me. I want to ask everyone to please respect our privacy at this time. For now, I will let the lawsuit speak for itself and will offer no further comment.”
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