Former NFL player Michael Oher was depicted in the 2009 Oscar-nominated biopic, “Blind Side,” as an at-risk youth who found a safe haven with a white family who he thought were his adoptive parents. Now, hidden truths are being revealed.

On Monday (August 14), Oher filed court documents at the Shelby County, Tennessee probate court that alleges that in 2004 when he was 18, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy tricked him into signing documents that he thought were his adoption papers. Unbeknownst to him, it was a conservatorship, according to ESPN.

In his 2011 memoir, I Beat the Odds, he shared, "They explained to me that it means pretty much the exact same thing as 'adoptive parents,' but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account.”

In the court filing, Oher alleges that the Tuohys, including their two birth children, were each paid $225,000, plus 2.5% of the film's "defined net proceeds.” It also appears that a petition was signed in 2007 that alleges Oher purportedly signed to "give away" 20th Century Fox Studios the life rights to his story "without any payment whatsoever."

The film received an Oscar nomination and starred Sandra Bullock, who won Best Actress for portraying Leigh Anne Tuohy.

"The lie of Michael's adoption is one upon which Co-Conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy have enriched themselves at the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher," the legal filing said. "Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys."

Oher is demanding the Tuohy’s cease their conservatorship and is barring the family from using his name and likeness. He is also seeking to be awarded a full account of the earnings the Tuohy’s have earned at the expense of his name. Additionally, he is demanding they fairly compensate him for all profits, including unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

"Since at least August of 2004, Conservators have allowed Michael, specifically, and the public, generally, to believe that Conservators adopted Michael and have used that untruth to gain financial advantages for themselves and the foundations which they own or which they exercise control," the petition continued. "All monies made in said manner should in all conscience and equity be disgorged and paid over to the said ward, Michael Oher."