Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy to End Michael Oher Conservatorship Amid Lawsuit

The Tuohy Family to End Michael Oher's Conservatorship

Memphis couple Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy plan to voluntarily terminate their conservatorship over Michael Oher, the couple's attorney Randall Fishman told reporters Aug. 16, per the Associated Press.

The decision comes just days after new broke that the former NFL player, whose life story was depicted in the Oscar-winning 2009 film The Blind Side, filed a petition challenging the agreement.

E! News has reached out to Oher's attorney for comment in response and has not heard back.

The move comes just one day after another lawyer for the couple, Marty Singer, said in a statement to E! News Aug. 15 that "should Mr. Oher wish to terminate the conservatorship, either now or at anytime in the future, the Tuohys will never oppose it in any way." However, the attorney also alleged that the athlete was using the lawsuit as a "shakedown effort" and that his claims about the family are "outlandish."

photosSports Stars & Their Kids

In his petition, filed in a Tennessee court Aug. 14 and obtained by E! News, Oher alleged that the Tuohys lied about adopting him when he was a high school student and that after he turned 18 in 2004, they "falsely advised" him to sign a document that made them his conservators as part of the process, giving them the legal power to complete business deals in his name.

Scott Cunningham/Getty Images/Dimitrios Kambouris/VF1/WireImage

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"Michael trusted the Tuohys and signed where they told him to sign," the petition states. "What he signed, however, and unknown to Michael until after February 2023, were not adoption papers, or the equivalent of adoption papers."

In his filing, the athlete, now 37, requested that his conservatorship should be terminated because of the Tuohys' alleged failure to perform their duties and obligations and act in his best interest and also because he "is not under any disability that requires a conservator."

He further asserted in the documents that he is "capable of handling his own affairs."

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Oher also noted in the petition that while the Tuohys negotiated contracts for themselves and their two biological children to receive $225,000 each, plus 2.5 percent of the film's "defined net proceeds," from The Blind Side, he received no compensation for signing the rights to his life story.

But Sean told the Daily Memphian, "We didn't make any money off the movie," explaining that instead, Michael Lewis, who wrote the book the film is based on, split his profit from selling the movie rights with the Tuohy family and that "everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000 each."

The 2009 film grossed more than $300 million and stars Quinton Aaron as Oher and Sandra Bullock, who earned an Oscar for her performance as Leigh Anne.

One day after the news of his filing became public, Oher broke his silence in a statement shared by his lawyers.

"I am disheartened by the revelation shared in the lawsuit today," he said in Aug. 15 statement to E! News. "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."

To see photos of the Tuohy family and Michael throughout the years, keep reading…

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