Michael Oher's 4 Kids: Everything to Know

Get to know Michael Oher’s four children: Kobi, Kierstin, MJ and Naivi

Michael Oher is a former NFL player and Super Bowl champion, two-time author and the inspiration behind the Oscar-winning movie The Blind Side. But one of his most important roles is dad: Oher shares four children with his wife, Tiffany Roy.

However, Oher’s road to fatherhood was anything but easy. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Denise Oher, who struggled with drug addiction, and Michael Jerome Williams, who was in and out of prison before he was murdered when Oher was in high school. Oher, who had 11 other siblings, spent most of his childhood — which he later described to PEOPLE as “traumatizing” — either homeless or in foster care.

In 2004, Oher was taken in by the Tuohy family while he was a student at Briarcrest Christian School in Eads, Tennessee. According to a recent legal filing, Oher went from being “on his own” and “nearly penniless" to graduating from high school and accepting a football scholarship at the University of Mississippi. Oher has since alleged in a legal petition to terminate his conservatorship that the Tuohys lied about adopting him and made millions off of his name. In a statement issued to PEOPLE, Tuohy family attorney Marty Singer called the "outlandish claims" made by Oher "hurtful and absurd."

Oher was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in 2009 and won a Super Bowl in 2013. Now retired from the NFL, he has never forgotten his childhood — and swore to be a better parent because of it.

“I know that I am not going to do anything to bring children into this world until I can provide a good life for them with a solid family,” he wrote in his 2011 book, I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond. “I’m going to be a great father, do all the right things, and make sure I’m there for them.”

And according to his wife Roy — whom he married in November 2022 after 17 years together — Oher has made good on his promise to be a “great father.” The couple are raising four children together: sons Kobi and MJ and daughters Kierstin and Naivi.

Related: Who Is Michael Oher's Wife? All About Tiffany Roy

“He is ... an amazing father to our kids,” Roy told PEOPLE in 2022.  “I love his love for his family and our kids. He is a stand-up dad and no one can top him.”

So who are Michael Oher’s children? Here is everything to know about his four kids: Kobi, Kierstin, MJ and Naivi.

Kobi

Kobi is Roy’s son from a previous relationship.

Oher revealed in his 2023 book, When Your Back’s Against the Wall: Fame, Football, and Lessons Learned through a Lifetime of Adversity, that he holds each of his four children — including Kobi — to high standards, particularly when it comes to schoolwork.

“My wife, Tiffany, says to friends, ‘Michael’s tough when it comes to schoolwork. He always had expectations for our kids. He’s hard on them because he’s hard on himself,’ ” Oher wrote.

He continued, “She is right. I hold all of my kids, Kobi, Kierstin, MJ and Naivi, to the same standards. There were — and still are — no Cs or Ds allowed in our house.”

Kobi isn’t just responsible for getting good grades, though. As the oldest child, he was tasked with a special responsibility when it came to Oher and Roy’s November 2022 wedding: walking Roy down the aisle.

They walked down the aisle to Beyonce’s “Halo" and shared a sweet moment together before Kobi escorted her to the altar.

“I heard my son ask me, ‘Are you ready?’ and I said, ‘Of course I am, I’ve been waiting a long time for this magical day,’ ” Roy told PEOPLE.

Kierstin

Kierstin is Roy’s daughter from a previous relationship.

Though Oher and Roy are extremely private about their parenting and rarely post about their children on social media, Oher penned a sweet dedication to Kierstin and Kobi in his 2023 book, When Your Back’s Against the Wall: Fame, Football, and Lessons Learned through a Lifetime of Adversity.

“Kobi and Kierstin, bringing you in as my own taught me patience and helped me grow into the man I respect today,” Oher wrote. “With you I have grown so much."

MJ

Oher and Tiffany welcomed their first child together — a son named MJ — in June 2013. Oher recounted the birth in his 2023 book and how it changed him as a man.

“In the same year I would become a Super Bowl champion, I would also become a dad,” he wrote. "It was a personal twist to the end of one of my most successful seasons that would blow my heart completely open.”

Oher continued, “When my son was born, everything changed. My life was centered around him ... he became my biggest treasure.”

Oher described how MJ was born eight weeks early at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, weighing only four pounds — “not much heavier than a football,” he wrote — and fitting in the palm of his hand.

“He had on the tiniest diaper I’d ever seen in my life,” Oher recalled in his book.

Because he was born premature, MJ spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit, but Oher said “he never worried about him because I knew he was special.”

“He was small but strong,” Oher continued. “He had the fight.”

Oher’s predictions were correct, and MJ — now 10 — has begun to play sports. But rather than starting football, MJ began with T-ball at the age of 6, according to Oher’s 2023 book. No matter the sport, though, it was a moment that Oher had been looking forward to as a father.

“Of all the milestones I’ve waited for as a father, getting to spend time with my son and coach him in sports was top on the list,” Oher wrote. “I try to model my relationship with my son the same way I wished it had been for me if I’d had a father who could have been present. I expect and push for greatness, but I also leave room for reassuring love.”

Naivi

Naivi is Oher and Roy's youngest child. Though the couple haven't publicly revealed when they welcomed their younger daughter, Oher did refer to Naivi as one of the “greatest gifts in my life” in When Your Back’s Against the Wall.

“My greatest accomplishment in life has been bringing you into this world and raising you in a way that was not possible for me,” Oher wrote about Naivi and her older brother, MJ.

He continued, “I want to give you the life I wish I had growing up. Your existence brings so much love and purpose into my life.”

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