Man Suing Gwyneth Paltrow Explains Why He Emailed Daughters 'I'm Famous' After 2016 Ski Crash with Actress

Terry Sanderson took the stand in a Park City, Utah courtroom Monday on day five of his civil lawsuit against Gwyneth Paltrow

Rick Bowmer-Pool/Getty (2) Gwyneth Paltrow and Terry Sanderson

The man suing Gwyneth Paltrow in Utah over a Feb. 26, 2016, ski collision is explaining the reasoning behind his email to his daughters with the subject line “I’m famous…,” sent after the incident.

As retired optometrist Terry Sanderson appeared before a Park City, Utah, court on Monday, he said during testimony that his head was “scrambled” in the hours following the collision with Paltrow, 50.

“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,” Sanderson, 76, told the jury of the email’s subject line.

“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,” he added.

Sanderson also recalled telling his daughter Shea, who testified for the court last week, that he assumed someone on the mountain at Utah’s Deer Valley Resort that day must have been able to record the incident.

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“I do have [a GoPro], yes, but I did not have it on that day,” he told the jury, adding that he has never seen a GoPro video of the collision. “Absolutely not. I would have loved to have it. It was what we needed.”

Sanderson, who first filed a lawsuit against Paltrow back in January 2019, has accused the actress of acting negligently when she allegedly collided with him as they both skied down the mountain. Both parties in the civil suit agree the collision in question happened, but they have conflicting points of view on who crashed into whom.

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Earler in Sanderson’s testimony Monday, the retired optometrist recalled hearing “a bloodcurdling scream” just before the collision happened.

“I just remember everything was great and then I heard something I’ve never heard at a ski resort, and that was a blood-curling scream,” he told the jury. “And then, boom, it was like somebody was out of control and gonna hit a tree and was gonna die. That’s what I [remembered] until I was hit.”

“I got hit in my back so hard… right at my shoulder-blades, and the fists and the poles were right there at the bottom of my shoulder-blades, serious, serious smack,” he added. “Never been hit that hard.”

Sanderson’s 2019 lawsuit originally requested damages in excess of $3.1 million, claiming the crash resulted in “permanent traumatic brain injury,” four broken ribs, pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress and disfigurement. That number has since been lowered to $300,000 by Judge Kent. R. Holmberg. Paltrow, who testified in the trial on Friday, seeks $1 in damages plus legal fees.

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