In August 2016, after the Rio Summer Olympics, Morales moved to Los Angeles, where she became both the West Coast anchor of Today, and Billy Bush's replacement as host of Access Hollywood and Access Hollywood Live, while continuing as a correspondent for Dateline.

[2] In addition to her other duties, she also hosts the Reelz series Behind Closed Doors with Natalie Morales.

Morales was born in Taiwan, to a Brazilian mother, Penelope, and a Puerto Rican father, Lieutenant Colonel Mario Morales, Jr.[3] She speaks Spanish and Portuguese and spent the first eighteen years of her life living in the United States and overseas in Panama, Brazil, and Spain as a "U.S. Air Force brat".

Morales 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.

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.

In June 2016, after Morales was made the West Coast anchor of Today, the family put the Hoboken townhouse on the market, and moved into a house in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, the following month.