OJ Simpson has weighed in on Gwyneth Paltrow’s trial over her 2016 ski collision with a man who now alleges he was left with permanent brain damage.
The former football star – who was acquitted in the 1990s of murdering his wife and her friend in a trial that gripped the country – posted a four-minute video on his Twitter account on Thursday morning after “hearing about [Ms Paltrow’s] case in the news.”
Ms Paltrow is currently facing trial in Park City, Utah, over allegations by retired optometrist Dr Terry Sanderson that she rammed into him on the slopes at the luxury Deer Valley Resort on 26 February 2016. Meanwhile, Ms Paltrow claims it was Mr Sanderson who ploughed into her.
Mr Sanderson, 76, claims he was left with “permanent traumatic brain injury, four broken ribs, pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress and disfigurement”.
Recounting his own experience skiing at Deer Valley years ago, Simpson noted that accidents are part of skiing and that he couldn’t determine whose fault it was.
“I thought the [runs were] real narrow, certainly far narrower than most of the places that I went skiing,” he told his more than 880,000 followers. “But accidents happen skiing, I don’t know how you could try to sue anybody for crashes on a ski slope. You see it all the time.”
He added: “I crashed with the same woman twice on one run, and if you ask me, it was her fault and I’m sure if you asked her, it was my fault. I’m just saying, it’s part of skiing.”
Telling his story while on the slopes at Deer Valley, Simpson said he was “flying down” a run when a woman turned from his left and crashed into him.
“We kind of looked at each other, ‘Are you all right?’” Simpson recalled. “And she said, ‘Yeah, I’m all right,’ and she asked me if I was all right, and we were pretty congenial as we got our stuff together, kind of chuckled about it, you know.”
But when they crashed a second time that same day, they weren’t very polite to each other, Simpson added.
Although Simpson was acquitted by a jury in 1995 for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, he was later found liable in the case in a civil suit in 1997. His trial created a media storm at the time and was broadcast live, captivating the public and dominating news coverage.
In 2008 he was sentenced to 33 years in prison after being charged with armed robbery and kidnapping, but was released on parole in 2017.
This is not the first time Simpson has weighed in on a major court case. Earlier this year, he wrongly predicted that Alex Murdaugh would win his trial for the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul in 2021.
In 2021, Simpson also caused a stir online after offering his opinion on the trial of Derek Chauvin ahead of the guilty verdict for the former Minneapolis police officer.
Ms Paltrow’s trial continues. Mr Sanderson is seeking $300,000 in compensation for the injuries he sustained, prompting the actress to file a countersuit in which she asks for a symbolic $1 should she win and for her legal expenses to be covered.
