Natalie Morales Biography – Natalie Morales Wiki
Natalie Morales alternatively Natalie Morales-Rhodes is an American journalist who served for NBC News for 22 years until October 2021. She was the Today Show West Coast anchor and appears on other programs including Dateline NBC and NBC Nightly News. In October 2021, it was announced that Morales would be leaving NBC News after 22 years and it was confirmed that she would join CBS’ The Talk as a permanent co-host.
In August 2016, after the Rio Summer Olympics, she migrated to Los Angeles, where she became both the Today show’s West Coast anchor and Billy Bush’s replacement as host of Access Hollywood and Access Hollywood Live while continuing as a correspondent for Dateline.
After college, she worked at Chase Bank before pursuing her journalism career. She started her on-air career at News 12 – The Bronx as the first-morning anchor under News 12 – The Bronx’s first news director Roberto Soto, and original studio directors Tom D’Elia, Brian Webb, Darryl Stith, and David Rein. She also served as a camera operator, editor, and producer for that network.
She went on to serve as a weekend anchor/reporter and morning co-anchor at WVIT-TV in Hartford, Connecticut, where she reported on the Columbine shootings, Hurricane Floyd, the 2000 Presidential election, and the September 11, 2001 attacks. She also co-hosted and reported for the Emmy-nominated documentary, Save Our Sound, a joint production with WNBC on preserving the Long Island Sound. In 1999, she was voted one of the 50 Most Influential Latinas for her news coverage and reports by the Hispanic daily newspaper El Diario La Prensa. Previously, she spent two years working behind the scenes at Court TV.
She was an anchor and correspondent for MSNBC from 2002 to 2006. She covered a number of major news stories there including the 2004 Presidential election, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, the Iraqi prisoner abuse, Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the Northeast Blackout of 2003, the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks and the investigation and trial of Scott Peterson. Additionally, she was named one of Hispanic Magazine’s Top Trendsetters of 2003.
Morales joined the Today show in 2006 as a national correspondent and was named co-anchor of the third hour of the show in March 2008. On May 9, 2011, it was announced that she would replace Ann Curry as the news anchor for Today, when Curry succeeded Meredith Vieira as host of Today in June 2011. In 2016 it was announced that Morales would be moving west to host Access and become the Today Show West Anchor. In 2019 Morales stepped away from hosting Access and remained on as the Today Show West Coast anchor.
She is an avid runner, having competed in five marathons, including three New York City Marathons. She also participates in triathlons. She has been featured in a full-length article and on the cover of the October 2010 issue of Triathlete Magazine.
She graduated in 1990 from Caesar Rodney High School located in Camden, Delaware. Morales holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University with dual majors in Journalism & Media Studies and Latin American studies. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude.
Natalie Morales Age
She was born on June 6, 1972, in Taipei City, Taipei, Taiwan.
Natalie Morales Husband
She married her husband, Joseph Rhodes on August 22, 1998. They have two children together. In 2002 they purchased a US$1 million townhouse in Hoboken, New Jersey, and expanded it in 2008 to 3,600 square feet. In June 2016, after she was made the Today show’s West Coast anchor, the family put the Hoboken townhouse on the market and moved into a house in Brentwood, California the following month. By October, the townhouse had sold for $3.1 million.
Natalie Morales Children
In early 2004, she gave birth to a son, Joseph Stockton Rhodes Josh, via C-section at Hoboken’s St. Mary Hospital. Their second son, Luke Hudson, was born in late 2008.
Natalie Morales Parents
She is the daughter of Mario Morales Jr. and Penelope Morales. She was born in Taiwan, to a Brazilian mother, Penelope, and a Puerto Rican father, Lieutenant Colonel Mario Morales, Jr. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese and spent the first eighteen years of her life living in America and overseas in Panama, Brazil, and Spain as a “U.S. Air Force brat”.
Natalie Morales Leaving NBC News
In October 2021, it was announced that Morales would be leaving NBC News after 22 years and it was confirmed that she would join CBS’ The Talk as a permanent co-host. She announced her departure in an internal memo to NBC News colleagues on Friday, October 1, 2021, explaining that she was excited to be pursuing “a new adventure,” but didn’t disclose details of what is next for her.
Morales will continue to appear as a “Dateline” correspondent through the rest of 2021 and will be saluted with an on-air farewell tribute on TODAY in the coming weeks.
Natalie Morales Instagram
She is active on her Instagram handle @nmoralesnbc.
