The skier suing Gwyneth Paltrow over a 2016 hit-and-run collision reportedly emailed his daughters: "I'm famous," a court has heard.
Paltrow, 50, is currently being sued by 76-year-old optometrist Dr. Terry Sanderson, who is claiming that he had been vacationing at the Deer Valley resort in Utah when an allegedly "out of control" Paltrow "bolted" down the slope and crashed into him.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by Sky News, the GOOP founder flew down the ski slope, "knocking [Sanderson] down hard, knocking him out, and causing a brain injury, four broken ribs and other serious injuries [...] Paltrow got up, turned and skied away, leaving Sanderson stunned, lying in the snow". Paltrow, meanwhile, has claimed that he crashed into her.
Sanderson was initially seeking damages of $3 million but this was subsequently reduced to $300,000 after his original request was overlooked by a judge, as reported by Metro. Paltrow has denied any wrongdoing and is countersuing Sanderson for $1, claiming that the incident was "categorically" his fault.
The Shakespeare In Love actress - who shares two children, Apple and Moses, with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin - testified that she initially believed she'd been sexually assaulted when Sanderson ran into her, stating: "I was skiing and two skis came between my skis, forcing my legs apart. And then there was a body pressing against me. And there was a very strange grunting noise. So my brain was trying to make sense of what was happening."
She continued: "I thought, 'Is this a practical joke? Is someone, like, doing something perverted? This is really, really strange.' My mind was going very, very quickly, and I was trying to ascertain what was happening."
She also described Sanderson as "groaning and grunting in a very disturbing way", before explaining: "Our bodies were almost spooning. And I moved away quickly."
The court also heard from Sanderson, who was quizzed by Paltrow's legal team over an email he sent to his daughters in the wake of the accident, that contained the subject line: "I'm famous..."
Sanderson was forced to defend himself when the email was brought up, stating (via People): "Again, my head was scrambled, [but] all I was trying to do was desperately communicate with my kids before they heard from somebody else [that] I got crushed. I didn't pick my words well, not at all how I felt, and I was really trying to add a little levity to a serious situation and it backfired."
Further in his testimony, Sanderson revealed that he had hoped someone at the ski resort would have had a GoPro on and caught the incident. "I do have [a GoPro], yes, but I did not have it on that day," he stated, adding that he hasn't seen any footage of the collision, which he has described as a "hit-and-run" accident. "Absolutely not. I would have loved to have it. It was what we needed," he added.
