Former NFL player Michael Oher, whose life story was adapted into the 2009 Oscar-winning movie "The Blind Side," recently accused the Tuohy family of lying about his adoption.
As "The Blind Side" famously tells it, Oher was taken in by the Tuohys as a teenager and then adopted by them.
Oher now alleges that the Tuohy family never actually adopted him, and that they instead misled him into a conservatorship, which gave them power over his business decisions and access to his profits.
The Tuohy family has declined to comment on Oher's allegations.
Since his time with the Tuohys, Oher has started a family of his own.
Oher married Tiffany Roy in 2022 after 17 years of dating, and the couple share two biological children: a son MJ and daughter Naivi.
Oher is also a stepparent to Roy's two children from a previous relationship: son Kobi and daughter Kierstin.
He opened up about his relationship with his wife in his latest memoir, "When Your Back's Against the Wall: Fame, Football, and Lessons Learned through a Lifetime of Adversity."
The book was published by Penguin Random House on Aug. 8, 2023, with Don Yaeger also cited as an author.
"If I’m talking about my circle, my wife, Tiffany, is in the center of it," Oher said in the memoir. "Her presence in my life is truly like my foundation: strong and stabilizing, but not always seen."
Here's everything you need to know about Oher's wife and family.
Oher and his wife met in college
Oher and Roy both attended the University of Mississippi, where Oher also played football.
"Our story is a funny one," Oher wrote of their relationship in his memoir. "One that I haven’t shared a lot about. It wasn’t love at first sight, at least not on her end. And like everything else good in my life, it wasn't handed to me. I had to work for it."
Oher shared in the memoir that he met Roy while she was working at the registrar's office. He said Roy wasn't initially interested in him or impressed by his football skills. He gave her his number though and hoped she would call.
Eventually, weeks later, Roy got in touch and the two slowly got to know each other.
"There was a realness to her that I liked," he wrote. "As a football player, I received plenty of attention from other girls. But that kind of attention isn’t real."
"Tiffany, on the other hand, was authentic," he continued. "She had this self-respect about her. She wasn’t going to just jump at the first sign of a guy being interested in her. I admired that kind of self-respect and reserve. We took things slow, but after a few months we were talking regularly."
Roy and Oher have been together ever since. He also revealed in the memoir that Roy is "a little bit older than me" and originally from New Orleans.
"I finally had a person I could consistently share my heart with," he wrote in his book. "I could talk to her about whatever pressures I was dealing with."
He added that Roy had "signed up for the journey" before "The Blind Side" came out in theaters.
"When I was just Michael, not the football player from The Blind Side," he said.
The couple shares four children
Oher opened up in his memoir about the 2013 birth of his and Roy's son MJ.
"Of all my accomplishments in life, being a dad is the one I am most proud of," Oher wrote in his memoir. "It takes on a whole different meaning, especially for the men who never had one to model after."
MJ arrived early, and spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit after his birth.
"I have a picture of him lying there in my palm," Oher wrote. "Not much heavier than a football and definitely not as long."
Having a child changed Oher's priorities.
"When my son was born, everything changed," he revealed in the memoir. "My life was centered around him: his feedings, his naps. I did everything that was expected of me, like always, but I couldn't wait to get back to the house. He became my biggest treasure."
Oher also shared that he holds all of his children to high standards.
"I hold my stepkids, Kobi and Kierstin, to the same standards as I do my own, MJ and Naivi. There were—and still are—no Cs or Ds allowed in our house."
In his book's acknowledgements, Oher thanked all four of his kids for making him who he is.
To Kobi and Kierstin, he said that "bringing you in as my own taught me patience and helped me grow into the man I respect today."
To his biological kids, MJ and Naivi, Oher said that the following:
"My greatest accomplishment in life has been bringing you into this world and raising you in a way that was not possible for me. I want to give you the life I wish I had growing up," he wrote. "Your existence brings so much love and purpose into my life."
After 17 years together, Oher and Roy married in 2022
The couple got engaged in July 2021, and their wedding took place in Nashville, Tennessee, on Nov. 5, 2022.
Roy opened up about the wedding in a post on her clothing business’s Instagram account.
"Thank you to each and every person that attend me and my husband’s wedding," she wrote in the caption. "This day was a very special day that I will forever cherish and hold close to my heart . I look back at my husband’s and I journey together and I can actually say it has been a fairytale."
"17 chapters full of life lessons and love," she continued. "Life and love is never easy but it’s when you are willing to fight, to learn from one another and to grow into a bounded couple. It’s also understanding and being patient with the person you want to go through good and bad with and to know that this is the person who will have your back and be loyal to you, and that’s why I choose Mr. Michael Oher my King who will love me and our family no matter what."
"I would not want no fairytale with no one else but this man I will always and forever love you," she concluded.
Oher also shared a post from the wedding.
"Filled with joy, can’t believe people took their time and came to celebrate!" he captioned the post, in part. "My beautiful wife, I love you so much, thank you for blessing me with our family! Easily the best single weekend I’ve ever been apart of."
