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Topics: Gwyneth Paltrow, US News, Celebrity, News
Joe Harker
Gwyneth Paltrow has told a jury that she was not the one to blame for the ski crash she is currently on trial for.
Paltrow is in a Utah court after being sued by 76-year-old Terry Sanderson, a retired optometrist who claims that seven years ago, she crashed into him while skiing at the Deer Valley Resort.
Sanderson has launched a lawsuit as he claims that the collision with Paltrow left him with a brain injury, concussion, four broken ribs and a number of other serious injuries.
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The incident took place on 26 February, 2016, and Sanderson launched his lawsuit in 2019, where he says he was heading down the resort's 'Bandana' run when he spotted signs telling him to slow down.
Complying with the signs on the ski slope, he then says he heard a 'hysterical scream' from behind him before he was hit in the back.
It was also claimed by Sanderson's attorney that Paltrow wasn't looking where she was going as she was looking at her children, who were also skiing with her at the resort.
Paltrow launched a countersuit claiming that it was in fact Sanderson who hit her during the ski crash and has taken to the witness stand in the trial to testify as such.
Yesterday (24 March) afternoon, Paltrow gave testimony saying that Sanderson 'skied directly into my f***ing back'.
She said: "I was skiing and two skis came between my skis, forcing my legs apart and then there was a body pressing against me.
"My brain was trying to make sense of what was happening. I thought, 'Is this a practical joke? Is someone doing something perverted?'
"I said 'you skied directly into my f***ing back' and he said 'oh sorry, sorry, I'm sorry'."
Paltrow said she was 'very upset' after the crash and when asked by Sanderson's attorney whether she asked the then 69-year-old if he was alright, she said: "When you’re the victim of a crash, your psychology is not necessarily thinking about the person who perpetrated it."
Sanderson's original lawsuit was seeking over $3 million in damages but has been reduced to $300,000 after a judge gave a verdict that the 76-year-old could not seek punitive damages.
Paltrow, in turn, is seeking a symbolic settlement of $1 and legal fees, with her legal team claiming that Sanderson's account of the crash is 'utter BS' and alleging that he is trying to get a payday out of her wealth and status.
In Utah law, the person further down the ski slope has right of way, and both Paltrow and Sanderson have said that they were the person in the crash who was further downhill.