The Tuohy Family Went On Bravo’s ‘Below Deck’ Before Their Messy Controversy — And There Were Some “Red Flags”

Sean Tuohy and Leigh Anne Tuohy — the married couple who inspired Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock‘s characters in The Blind Side — are back in hot water after a clip from their appearance on Bravo’s Below Deck resurfaced on TikTok.

The wealthy Southern duo, who took in retired NFL player Michael Oher when he was a homeless teenager, vacationed on Captain Lee Rosbach‘s mega-yacht back in a Season 5 episode of the hit reality show, which follows the lives of the luxurious boat’s crew.

The 2017 episode, appropriately titled “Blindsided,” describes the Tuohys as a “challenge” for the crew — and Chef Matt Burns, in particular.

Abigail Adams, a reporter for People magazine, took to TikTok to post a clip from the end of the episode — which she referred to as a “red flag.” In the video, Captain Lee asks Sean how the Oscar-nominated film and the book on which it is based came to be, to which he reveals that he and Michael Lewis, the author of The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, have gone to school together since they were five years old.

“I got a call from Steven Spielberg, Harvey Weinstein — I had to give them the rights to use our name. And I said, ‘I’ll give you the rights if I get to read the script and approve or unapproved,’” Sean explained in the viral clip. “Sure enough, seven months later we get an envelope in the mail and it’s a script of the movie.”

Earlier this week, Oher filed a petition claiming the central story of The Blind Side — that the Tuohy family had adopted him — was all a big “lie.” He alleged that the family never legally adopted him and instead, tricked him into signing a conservatorship, thus allowing them to make millions of dollars off of his name.

In response to the allegations, Sean revealed that the family was “devastated” by the lawsuit — and insisted that the conservatorship was used to appease the NCAA when it came time to send Oher to college since he couldn’t be adopted over the age of 18. The family’s lawyer, Marty Singer, later claimed the athlete threatened to “plant a negative story” in the press if they didn’t fork over “$15 million.”