Michael Oher, subject of ‘The Blind Side’ book and movie, says he was never adopted by the Tuohy family, and was instead tricked into a conservatorship.

Well I think it’s safe to say that we were all BLINDSIDED by this news yesterday.

‘The Blind Side’ book and movie took over the world in 2008/09. It was a heartwarming and inspiring story of a Mississippi family (the Tuohy’s) taking in a young man who had a difficult background and nurturing him into a star offensive lineman at Ole Miss and eventually the NFL. Everybody loved it! Millions went to see it in the theaters, Sandra Bullock won as Oscar! An Oscar, Jerry!

Well, according to Michael Oher, what we all read/saw wasn’t necessarily the truth. Now look, I think most people understood that not EVERYTHING in that movie was true. Some of it was embellished and exaggerated for theatric effect. I’m pretty sure Oher himself has done interviews in the past where he admitted to that.

But this feels like a LOT more than an exaggeration. Oher is alleging that the Tuohy family never adopted him, and instead tricked him into signing a conservatorship that has allowed them to control the profits the family made on the movie. Not great!

We all learned about conservatorships during the #FREEBRITNEY* movement a few years ago. Social media organized their efforts to get Britney Spears out of the conservatorship that her father had over her. A conservatorship gives a guardian or a protector control over someone’s personal or financial affairs if that person is incapable of fully managing their own affairs. Source: Trust me.

Anyhoo, this certainly gives a sour taste to a sweet story that everyone loved. As always, there are two sides to this whole thing. The Tuohy’s came out after Oher’s comments and said that conservatorship was their only option because they couldn’t adopt Oher when he was 18 years old. They claim that EVERYONE got their equal share of the movie profits, and the Tuohy’s son that Michael befriended in the movie, this guy:

was claiming that there have been group texts talking about money for YEARS between his parents and Michael.

We’ll see how it all shakes out, but that certainly wasn’t an article I expected to read yesterday.

*Everyone: ‘FREE BRITNEY, FREE BRITNEY! She deserves to live her life!’ 3 years after the Britney was freed and has subsequently released DOZENS of unhinged videos on Instagram: ‘Maybe her dad was right! Unfree Britney! Unfree Britney!’

PS: My favorite subplot of this story going viral yesterday was a group of people on Twitter demanding that Sandra Bullock give back her Oscar. Guys, if you’re angry about what the Tuohy’s allegedly did to Michael Oher, I’m not sure Sandra Bullock is the person to direct your anger at. That’s just me though.

Double PS: ^Related: