Gwyneth Paltrow testifies in ski collision trial

By Elise Hammond, Matt Meyer and Tori B. Powell, CNN

Updated 8:31 p.m. ET, March 24, 2023
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6:22 p.m. ET, March 24, 2023

Paltrow says she thinks lawsuit against her is unfair

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow said that she feels it is unfair that Terry Sanderson is suing her over a 2016 ski crash.

Sanderson has accused Paltrow of colliding with him and breaking four of his ribs and causing a traumatic brain injury with lasting effects.

Paltrow has filed a countersuit, claiming Sanderson crashed into her.

On the stand Friday, Paltrow confirmed that she is bringing the counterclaim for $1.

During a line of questioning from Sanderson's lawyer, she said this is mostly symbolic because the amount of damages would be much more.

Paltrow talked about losing half of a day skiing because of the collision when she paid for a full-day pass.

6:13 p.m. ET, March 24, 2023

Paltrow says she did not ask about the condition of Terry Sanderson after the collision

Gwyneth Paltrow testifies during her trial on  Friday, March 24, in Park City, Utah.
Gwyneth Paltrow testifies during her trial on Friday, March 24, in Park City, Utah. (Rick Bowmer/Pool/AP)

Gwyneth Paltrow said she did not ask about the condition of Terry Sanderson after they collided while skiing in Utah in 2016.

"I think you have to keep in mind when you're the victim of a crash, right, your psychology is not necessarily thinking about the person who perpetrated it," Paltrow testified.

When asked if she asked anyone at Deer Valley Resort, where the crash happened, if he was hurt, Paltrow said, “I did not because at the time I did not know that he had sustained injuries like that. I thought it was very minor on the day.”

She said she stayed on the mountain "long enough for him to say that he was OK" and to stand up. Paltrow testified that she could not tell if Sanderson was unsteady.

6:22 p.m. ET, March 24, 2023

A lawyer acted out the ski crash after the judge rejected her request to have Paltrow play the role

Attorney Kristin VanOrman, center, reenacts the ski crash in court on Friday.
Attorney Kristin VanOrman, center, reenacts the ski crash in court on Friday. (Pool/Court TV)

A lawyer from Terry Sanderson's defense team had hoped to use Gwyneth Paltrow in a courtroom reenactment of the ski crash but settled for portraying Paltrow herself when the judge rejected the idea.

"Because we did this over video, we didn't really get to act it out a whole heck of a lot," attorney Kristin VanOrman told the actress, of her initial interviews on the collision.

VanOrman asked Paltrow if she wouldn't mind stepping down and "kind of acting this out a little bit," but after a sidebar with both legal teams, the judge said the actress would not be participating.

"The court doesn't mind if I act it out, correct?" the lawyer then asked.

The judge said he would permit that, but promptly rejected a pitch from Sanderson's team for the retired optometrist to play himself in the reenactment.

VanOrman grabbed a hand-held mic and modeled the way Paltrow was skiing down the hill, asking the actress questions about the positioning of her skis and the moment of the collision.

5:47 p.m. ET, March 24, 2023

Paltrow says Sanderson's skis came in between hers and he was making a "grunting noise"

An attorney for Terry Sanderson, the man suing actress Gwyneth Paltrow over a skiing collision in 2016, reenacted what happened during the crash in court Friday.

Paltrow testified that she was trying to figure out what was happening in the moments during and directly after a collision with Sanderson, describing him as making grunting noises.

She testified Friday that two skis came in between her skis, forcing her legs apart and then "there was a body pressing against me and there was a very strange grunting noise."

Kristin VanOrman, Sanderson's lawyer, walked around the courtroom trying to demonstrate where the skis were and how Paltrow and Sanderson were positioned, based on how Paltrow described the incident. Paltrow directed VanOrman on the stance of her feet, for example.

"My brain was trying to make sense of what was happening. I thought, 'Am I... is this a practical joke? Is someone, like, doing something perverted?' This is really really strange," she said in her testimony.

Paltrow said at that point she didn't know if it was an accident and she froze.

They both came crashing down together, Paltrow said, confirming that her knee and both of their skis were tangled up. In her deposition, being read by the lawyer, Paltrow said "our bodies were almost spooning and I moved away quickly."

5:32 p.m. ET, March 24, 2023

Paltrow: "I was skied directly into by Mr. Sanderson"

Answering an initial round of questioning from a member of Terry Sanderson's legal team, Gwyneth Paltrow repeated her assertion that Sanderson skied directly into her back and caused the collision.

"He struck me in the back, yes, that's exactly what happened," Paltrow said, as the lawyer read back a portion of her description of the events from a deposition.

"I was skiing and looking downhill, as you do, and I was skied directly into by Mr. Sanderson," the actress and businesswoman said, speaking from the stand in a Park City, Utah, courtroom.

Sanderson, 76, has accused Paltrow of causing the crash and seriously injuring him.

5:22 p.m. ET, March 24, 2023

Paltrow was skiing with her now-husband and children on the day of the collision

On the day of the ski collision with Terry Sanderson, actress Gwyneth Paltrow was skiing with her two kids as well as with Brad Falchuk – who was her boyfriend at the time, now her husband – and his two kids, she testified on Friday.

The family was on a trip at Deer Valley Resort, where they have been twice before the crash, Paltrow said. The collision happened on the first day of their trip, she said.

All of the children, who are around the same age, took ski lessons, Paltrow said. She testified that while she didn't recall the exact amount, these lessons cost several thousand dollars for all of the kids, plus tips.

When asked if she was a good tipper, Paltrow answered, "yes."

5:16 p.m. ET, March 24, 2023

Paltrow says she wasn't "engaging in any risky behavior" at time of skiing crash

Gwyneth Paltrow said she was not skiing in a risky way at the time of the 2016 collision at the center of her ongoing civil trial.

"I was not engaging in any risky behavior," Paltrow said, responding to a question from a lawyer from the team of Terry Sanderson — the man she collided with.

Asked if she was avoiding risky behavior because her kids were there, Paltrow said: "I wouldn't with my children there or without my children there."

5:24 p.m. ET, March 24, 2023

Gwyneth Paltrow has taken the stand

From CNN's Cheri Mossburg

Paltrow sits in court during an objection by her attorney on March 24.
Paltrow sits in court during an objection by her attorney on March 24. (Rick Bowmer/Pool/Getty Images)

Gwyneth Paltrow has taken the stand in a Park City, Utah, courtroom in her ongoing trial over a 2016 skiing accident.

Paltrow is accused of crashing into Terry Sanderson, breaking four of the man’s ribs and causing a traumatic brain injury with lasting effects. She has filed a countersuit, claiming Sanderson crashed into her.

The trial is in its fourth day, with previous witnesses including a clinical neuropsychologist who treated Sanderson following the collision, an expert witness who spoke to Sanderson’s broken ribs, and two of Sanderson’s daughters who addressed their father’s behavior prior to and after the crash.

1:27 p.m. ET, March 24, 2023

Man suing Paltrow experienced a "myriad of symptoms" following collision, neuropsychologist testifies

From CNN's Lisa Respers France

Thursday's testimony in the trial over a 2016 skiing accident involving Gwyneth Paltrow kicked off with testimony from a clinical neuropsychologist who treated the man who is suing the actress.

Alina K. Fong testified via videotaped deposition about the care she provided to Terry Sanderson, 76, who has accused Paltrow of crashing into him and causing him lasting injuries and brain damage while they were both skiing on a beginner’s run on a Utah mountain in February 2016.

Fong said she first saw Sanderson in May 2017 and described him as complaining of a “myriad of symptoms,” including cognitive issues, fatigue, mood and personality changes, pain and headaches.

“By the time I saw him, he was struggling with these concussive symptoms for almost a year and a half,” she testified.

During cross-examination, Paltrow’s attorney James Egan questioned Fong as to whether it was possible that Sanderson’s symptoms could have been due to something other than the crash.

“Anything is possible but not probable,” Fong responded.

Sanderson’s middle daughter, Polly Sanderson Grasham, 49, testified that prior to the accident her father was “a goer.”

“I think people would describe him as fun-loving, very gregarious, definitely an extrovert,” she said. “(He) enjoyed people, dancing, outdoor activity.”

In testimony that at times turned emotional, Sanderson Grasham, who lives in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, said a year and a half after the crash, she noticed her father’s “processing speed” appeared to have changed.

She described once seeing him sitting in a chair by a window in her house and said she “almost expected drool to be coming out of his mouth.”

“First of all, he wasn’t engaged with anybody,” she said. “He had kind of taken himself to a remote corner. That was my first real slap in the face of there’s something terribly wrong.”