Gwyneth Paltrow explained why the ski trip at the center of the Park City, Utah, civil court case was sentimental and “significant” for her and her family.
The Goop founder, 50, took the stand to testify on Friday, recounting her recollection of the Feb. 26, 2016, ski collision between her and retired doctor Terry Sanderson, now 76. It was a trip she took with her now-husbandBrad Falchukand her two childrenApple, 11 at the time, and Moses, 9 at the time, plus Falchuk’s two kids Isabella and Brody, who are the same age as Paltrow’s kids.
“This was a significant trip for us. It was the first time Brad and I were introducing our kids and doing something together to see if we could blend families,” Paltrow told the courtroom.
Earlier in her testimony, the actress also spoke about her late fatherBruce Paltrow, who died in 2002 at age 58, and how he taught Gwyneth how to ski. Her attorney, Stephen Owens, had previously said during opening statements on Tuesday that Gwyneth “didn’t ski for a long time” after her father’s death.
“He loved skiing and he had learned later in life, and so he was determined for my brother and I to learn how to ski when we were young,” the actress recalled of her father Friday. “He used to do these really sweet one-on-one ski trips with us where he would take us to various destinations, and Alta was one of them.”
Gwyneth and Bruce Paltrow in 2001.George De Sota/Getty Images
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During thetrial’s first dayon Tuesday, Gwyneth’s attorney Owens asserted in his opening argument that the actress' trip to Deer Valley Resort with her family in 2016 “was a sentimental issue” years after Bruce’s death.
“Ms. Paltrow has sentimental feelings about skiing; her dad, who left this life too early, took her skiing as a kid at Alta,” Owens said. “She grew up learning to ski and this was a very sentimental trip. In fact, after her dad died in his 50s, she didn’t ski for a long time because it was an emotional thing for her.”
Rick Bowmer/AP/Shutterstock
“So it was a sentimental issue because she had started getting back into skiing and she did it because she wanted her kids to learn like she had,” he added, noting that the trip was her and 52-year-old Falchuk’s “first trip to sort of a have a mixed, see-if-this-might-work,” as they began to blend families.
Falchuk, Apple and Moses are expected to testify next week.
source: people.com
