Gwyneth Paltrow testifies during her trial on March 24, 2023. Photo / Getty Images
Gwyneth Paltrow testifies during her trial on March 24, 2023. Photo / Getty Images
Gwyneth Paltrow yelled at her alleged ski crash victim: “You skied directly into my f****** back!” – and claimed she initially thought he was a “perverted” man assaulting her.
The Goop founder, 50, admitted her outburst and molestation fear as she took the stand on Friday,at Park City Court, Utah, to insist she was not responsible for the 2016 collision at Deer Park Resort, in the state that retired optometrist Dr Terry Sanderson, 76, says left him with permanent brain damage.
Paltrow started her testimony by telling attorney Kristin van Orman that eyewitness Craig Ramon’s account of the accident was questionable.
“He said he was 40ft (12.1m) away and colour blind – I don’t know how he could have seen what he thinks he saw.
“And I can tell you that he didn’t, because Mr Sanderson categorically hit me and that is the truth.”
She also insisted skiing instructor Eric Christiansen had given her contact details to Sanderson, as part of her denial of the retired medic’s claim she fled the scene of the accident.
Paltrow also said she heard the doctor making a “groaning noise” as they crashed into one another, that left her thinking she was being assaulted by a “perverted” skier.
“He was making some strange noises that sounded male and he was large so I assumed he was a male.
“I was confused at first because it’s a very strange thing to happen on a ski slope. I got very upset a few seconds later.
“There was a body pressing against me and he was making a groaning noise. I didn’t know, is this a practical joke or is someone doing something perverted?”
The actress soon realised the crash was nothing to do with a sexual assault.
Paltrow also denied she had been watching her son Moses, now 16, ski at the time of the crash.
Gwyneth Paltrow takes the witness stand to testify about a 2016 ski collision. Photo / Getty Images
Mum-of-two Paltrow – whose children Apple and Moses were 11 and 9 at the time of the ski accident – had faced the accusation she had been distracted on the slopes by one of her children yelling: ”Mommy, Mommy watch me ski” before the crash.
The actress added: “I can still watch my children ski and be skied directly into my back by someone and that’s what happened.
“My daughter (Apple) was down the hill and my son was to my left, I was skiing and my eyes were not just on Moses.”
Paltrow – worth an estimated $260 million (NZ$419 million) – is countersuing Sanderson, who wants $300,000 (NZ$483,481) in compensation for his apparent brain damage after the collision, and says she wants a token $1 (NZ$1.61) in compensation, plus her legal fees covered.
