Gwyneth Paltrow testifies in ski collision trial

Gwyneth Paltrow testified Friday in a civil trial stemming from a 2016 skiing accident at the Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah.

Terry Sanderson has accused the actress and Goop founder of crashing into him and causing him serious injuries while they were both skiing — a lawsuit that Paltrow testified that she thinks is unfair, saying she didn’t cause the accident.

She filed a countersuit against Sanderson claiming that he skied into her.

Here’s what she said on the stand:

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Gwyneth Paltrow finished her testimony Friday in the civil trial stemming from a 2016 skiing accident in Park City, Utah.

The trial concluded at 5:01 p.m. local time (7:01 p.m. ET). It will resume on Monday.

Terry Sanderson, 76, has accused the actress and businesswoman of crashing into him and causing him serious injuries while they were both skiing on a Utah mountain.

Paltrow filed a countersuit against Sanderson, a retired optometrist, claiming that he skied into her.

Gwyneth Paltrow said she “absolutely” remembers clearly the events of her 2016 collision on the ski slopes with retired optometrist Terry Sanderson.

“You know what occurred, right?” asked Steve Owens, the actress’ attorney.

“I absolutely do,” Paltrow replied. “I was there.”

“When they say, ‘Did anyone witness this?’ and ‘Mr. Sanderson doesn’t really remember things,’ — you remember things don’t you?” Owens asked.

“I do,” the actress said again.

She further answered that she wasn’t knocked out by the collision and that she hadn’t suffered memory loss.

Some context: Sanderson has accused Paltrow of crashing into him and causing him lasting injuries, including brain damage.

In the court documents originally filed by Sanderson and obtained by CNN in 2019, Sanderson stated that while skiing at Deer Valley Resort, Paltrow allegedly “skied out of control … knocking him down hard, knocking him out.”

CNN’s Lisa Respers France and Alli Rosenbloom contributed to this report.

Gwyneth Paltrow responded Friday – when asked about the collision at Deer Valley Resort in 2016 – that it was “absolutely not” a hit-and-run.

When asked if she stayed on the mountain for a while after the crash with Terry Sanderson, Paltrow said, “I did indeed.”

Earlier in her testimony, Paltrow said she stayed on the mountain “long enough for him to say that he was OK” and to stand up.

In the court documents originally filed by Sanderson and obtained by CNN in 2019, Sanderson claims that Paltrow hit him causing a brain injury and four broken ribs.

Sanderson also claims Paltrow and her ski instructor skied away after the incident without getting him medical care.

Attorney Kristin VanOrman from Terry Sanderson’s team asked if the $1 that Gwyneth Paltrow is seeking in damages was inspired by a 2017 case involving singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

VanOrman asked Paltrow whether or not the damages she was seeking was symbolic, to which Paltrow answered: “It’s symbolic because the damages would actually be more.”

Van Orman then suggested Paltrow was seeking that amount, based on a similar gesture by Swift. The pop star won a lawsuit in 2017 against radio host David Mueller, who she had said groped her at a meet-and-greet event in June 2013. Mueller was required to pay $1 in damages.

But Paltrow said Friday that she had not been aware of Swift’s case at the time.

“Are you good friends with Taylor Swift,” VanOrman asked. Paltrow answered, “No.”

“I would not say we’re good friends,” Paltrow said. “We are friendly. I’ve taken my kids to one of her concerts before, but we don’t talk very often.”

Terry Sanderson’s legal team tried to use previous media appearances in which actress Gwyneth Paltrow discussed being clumsy to discredit her testimony, but the judge ultimately would not allow it.

“Would you agree that you are accident-prone?” attorney Kristin VanOrman asked Paltrow, at which point the judge and the two legal teams paused for a bench meeting.

It had apparently renewed a debate between the two sides, which the judge had already considered, on whether Sanderson’s lawyers could raise the interviews in an effort to discredit Paltrow’s testimony.

VanOrman said it was relevant because Paltrow has been asked multiple times under oath whether she is accident-prone and said she wasn’t. But, the attorney claimed, Paltrow “has admitted a number of times that she is (accident-prone).”

Therefore “this is all impeachment evidence,” VanOrman said, referring to the legal process of undermining a witness’ credibility.

The interviews in question: VanOrman said her team had submitted evidence of Paltrow’s self-professed clumsiness, including several articles and a video.

In that clip, the attorney said, “Ms. Paltrow went on (late night show) ‘Jimmy Kimmel,’ saying: ‘Yes, I am accident-prone, I am always running into things.’”

“We believe that’s exactly what she did, is she ran into things, like she always does,” VanOrman said.

Paltrow’s team responded, expressing frustration and saying the opposing legal team had already made this case to the judge and had their request to use the articles and video rejected.

Ultimately, the judge said Sanderson’s team had not sufficiently proven Paltrow’s clumsiness played a role in the crash, and said the argument would not be considered.

Gwyneth Paltrow said she does feel empathy for Terry Sanderson, the man she collided with on a ski slope in 2016.

“I feel very sorry for him. It seems like he’s had a very difficult life, but I did not cause the accident so I cannot be at fault for anything that subsequently happened to him,” she testified.

Asked by her lawyer if she caused tension between Sanderson’s family members that his daughter testified about earlier in the day, Paltrow said, “I did not cause that.”

She also testified that she did not give Sanderson brain injuries that showed up on an MRI in 2006.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

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.

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.”

The trial over a 2016 skiing accident involving Gwyneth Paltrow began March 21.

The actress and businesswoman was present in the Park City, Utah, courtroom as a jury was seated and opening statements began in the case. Terry Sanderson, 76, has accused Paltrow of crashing into him and causing him serious injuries while they were both skiing on a Utah mountain in February of 2016.

In the court documents originally filed by Sanderson and obtained by CNN in 2019, Sanderson stated that while skiing at Deer Valley Resort, Paltrow allegedly “skied out of control … knocking him down hard, knocking him out, and causing a brain injury, and four broken ribs and other serious injuries.”

Sanderson also claims Paltrow and her ski instructor skied away after the incident without getting him medical care.

Paltrow filed a countersuit against Sanderson, a retired optometrist, claiming that he skied into her.

According to Paltrow’s countersuit, she “was enjoying skiing with her family on vacation in Utah, when Plaintiff – who was uphill from Ms. Paltrow – plowed into her back. She sustained a full ‘body blow.’ Ms. Paltrow was angry with Plaintiff, and said so. Plaintiff apologized. She was shaken and upset, and quit skiing for the day even though it was still morning.”

Sanderson had initially sued Paltrow for $3.1 million, but later amended his complaint and is now seeking more than $300,000 in damages, according to court documents.

Paltrow is seeking $1 in damages, plus attorneys’ fees.

The judge offered instructions Tuesday to the eight-person jury and the attorneys for each side introduced themselves to the court before opening statements by one of Sanderson’s lawyers, Lawrence Buhler, followed by Paltrow’s attorney, Steve Owens.

Owens reiterated Paltrow’s claim that she was downhill from Sanderson before the collision took place.

The trial is expected to last about one week.

CNN has contacted a representative for Paltrow for comment.