In the trial against Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow for a skiing accident, the plaintiff made serious allegations against the US actress. Terry Sanderson, 76, said in a Park City, Utah court that he suffered four fractured ribs and permanent brain damage in the 2016 crash. The accident changed his “personality”. “I kind of live a different life now,” said the retired optometrist.
The actress crashed into his back on the ski slope in the Rocky Mountains, Sanderson described the accident. He was thrown into the air by the “heavy blow”. “The last thing I remember is that everything went black,” said the man, who had suffered from vision and heart problems before the accident.
Paltrow had described the accident very differently in her statement and protested her innocence. Not you, but Sanderson caused the collision on the ski slope, Paltrow said. “Mr. Sanderson definitely hit me on that ski slope and that’s the truth,” the 50-year-old protested under cross-examination.
When Sanderson slipped between her skis from behind, she even thought of sexual assault at first, the Oscar winner reported. “I was skiing and then two skis came in between my skis and pushed my legs apart and then a body was pushing against mine and there was a weird grunting sound,” Paltrow said. “I thought: is this some kind of joke? Is someone doing something perverted?”
And Paltrow’s daughter Apple Martin also confirmed in court how much the incident affected her mother. According to a report in the British Telegraph, the 18-year-old, who was 11 at the time of the accident, said she had never seen Paltrow so “upset”. The US actress was “desperate” and in a “state of shock”.
When Martin asked her mother about her condition, she reported the incident. The teen recalls, “She said, ‘This A-hole ran into me, he ran right in my back’.” He meant Sanderson. She then decided not to ski anymore that day.
Sanderson’s attorney Lawrence Buhler had estimated the damage at the beginning of the trial at $ 3.3 million (3.1 million euros). In the civil lawsuit, he accused Paltrow of seriously injuring his client in the collision and then leaving him unconscious. Paltrow filed a countersuit. She is demanding a symbolic sum of one dollar from Sanderson and reimbursement of her legal fees.
The accident happened while Paltrow was vacationing with her now-husband Brad Falchuk and their two children from her marriage to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. Falchuk and the children Apple and Moses are also said to testify in the process.
