On the 26th of February 2016, Gwyneth Paltrow and Terry Sanderson collided on the ski slopes of Utah, USA. In the aftermath, Terry Sanderson sued Gwyneth Paltrow for over $300,000 in damages. It was a case of her word against his: who was at fault for the devastating crash? Battling it out in court, it was a celebrity trial that split public opinion. ‘Essentially the only two people in this world who know the truth are Gwyneth Paltrow and Terry Sanderson,’ as Legal Commentator Terri Austin puts it, ‘determining who was the uphill skier and who was the downhill skier is the $300,000 question in this case’.
Now, the sensational trial of Sanderson vs. Paltrow is laid out to bare in the brand-new documentary Gwyneth vs Terry: The Ski Crash Trial (available on TLC South Africa @ 22:00 CAT on Sunday, 21 January). With unique access to key players in the story, including a juror from the trial and key witnesses, this documentary provides the inside story of one of the most talked about legal cases of 2023. Who caused the fateful collision is then hotly contested and leads to an eight-day trial watched by the world, Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow or retired optometrist Terry Sanderson? It’s a rare case of a civilian in a legal battle with a celebrity. Two compelling polar opposite viewpoints that ask the viewer to decide - who was to blame?
Samantha Imrie, a juror in the trial, recalls the moment she became involved in the case: “At the beginning of 2023, I received an email telling me that I needed to go to jury selection. I was very concerned it was going to be murder or a child abuse case in which I would have had a really challenging time. When I was in jury selection, they said, ‘This is Sanderson vs Paltrow,’ and I didn’t really put together that this was Gwyneth Paltrow.” As the trial began, all became clear: as journalist Daniel Bates describes the scene, “Terry Sanderson’s allegation was that, essentially, his accident was an inflexion point in his life; before he was outgoing, he was sociable. Afterwards, he described it as living a completely different life.” Speaking exclusively in the documentary, Sanderson’s ex-partner Karlene Davidson recalls the day of the fateful crash, where Sanderson wasn’t initially aware of who the other person in the collision was. “At the time, he didn’t know; I don’t believe he said Gwyneth Paltrow; he didn’t know who it was,” she says. “He just said, ‘I had been hit on the hill. He was definitely hurt more than he was letting on.”
On the other side of the case was renowned actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow. “She’s known all over the world. She’s got this massive fortune through GOOP, her luxury wellness brand. It didn’t seem like a fair fight,” Bates suggests. “Terry Sanderson wasn’t able to hire a crack medical malpractice team. Gwyneth Paltrow’s lawyers were absolutely vicious.” Bates also notes Paltrow's advantages over Sanderson, “She knew it was being televised. She’s been in front of a camera before; she understands how it works.” However, as personal injury attorney Ruth Shapiro points out, Paltrow, like any other human being, wouldn’t have been immune to the stresses of facing a potentially career-damaging trial. “It's not a relaxing situation to be in a court before a jury, no matter if you’re a Golden Globe or Academy Award winner, it's still nerve-racking,” she says. Bates also describes how the trial must have taken its toll on Paltrow, as she always aimed to put family first above living in the limelight. “Her priorities have been family, GOOP, and you see that from her posts on Instagram, I think for her it’s more important to be there, be a mum, be around her kids, and not necessarily be a ‘walking the red carpet’ celebrity.”
As the trial began to gain traction on social media, tensions continued to build in the courtroom. As shown in courtroom footage included in the documentary, Paltrow describes her side of events of the accident on the witness stand. “I was skiing, and two skis came between my skis, forcing my legs apart,” she states, “and then there was a body pressing against me.” Reflecting on the courtroom proceedings that she witnessed firsthand, court juror Samantha Imrie argues that Paltrow was sympathetic towards Sanderson despite insisting she wasn’t at fault for the collision. “Gwyneth Paltrow did not seem dismissive to Terry’s injuries or anything caused by the accident; however, she was very clear that this accident was not her fault,” she says.
Indeed, the impact the crash had on Sanderson was life-changing, as his ex-partner Karlene Davidson shares. “He became like an old man; he didn’t want to do anything anymore; he felt like he wasn’t capable or just didn’t feel good about it. His joy was gone,” she says. Not only did the accident alter Sanderson’s outlook on life, but also, ultimately, his relationship, as Davidson adds. “He pulled away and pushed me away to almost save me from having to deal with whatever was going on with him,” she says. “I didn’t want that relationship to end; I could've stayed with the man that I adored.”
As the jury began to sympathise with Sanderson’s position, the case began to swing when Paltrow’s lawyer, Stephen Owens, revealed shocking evidence that suggested Sanderson’s life wasn’t falling away at the seams as he claimed, as court reporter Julia Jenae explains. “Owens has pictures of Terry on trips from all of these different countries, and he was able to show him happy and enjoying himself,” she says. “The picture that was painted, this man that was unable to travel, unable to function, didn’t have friends, yet he’s travelling the world; it didn’t add up.” However, Sanderson’s neurologist Alina Fong later testifies that he travelled on her advice, “that was part of his recovery, to get back to travel and get back to some semblance of an increased quality of life.” His ex-partner, Davidson, believes that it was an unfair trial from the beginning, sensationally claiming that status and politics were at the centre of the trial. Despite the Court’s efforts to screen jurors for bias, she believes that “the jury had to be slanted in their opinions. They were skiers and part of the Deer Valley community. Park City didn’t want to lose their celebrity status of stars coming.”
On the 30th of March 2023, the Jury came to a decision. For Samantha Imrie, the pressure of reaching a fair and just conclusion was intense. “During these eight days, I have never felt such a heavy weight on my shoulders knowing I’d have to go through all this evaluation and determine who was lying and who was telling the truth,” she says. However, it only took two hours for the jury to reach a conclusion, assigning one hundred percent of the fault to Sanderson. As Imrie describes, with all the evidence taken into consideration, it was an open and shut case. “It was almost black and white at the end, and there was no way the collision could have happened in the way that Terry Sanderson was saying that it had happened.”
Despite the verdict, questions remain as to the level playing field of a celebrity versus civilian civil case, as attorney Bruce Pritchett argues. “One of the factors that weighed into the disparity in the case was that she had more money and resources to litigate the case with,” he says. As the trial came to an end, Jenae recalled the now-iconic moment as the legal parties exited the courtroom, with Paltrow leaning over to Sanderson and whispering to him. It was a clip widely covered on both social media and by the international press. “She walked over past the plaintiff’s table, she leaned over, whispered something in Terry Sanderson’s ear and then she left.” Sanderson later revealed in a post-trial interview that Paltrow said, ‘I wish you well...’
