Former Fox & Friends host Clayton Morris has reportedly moved with his family to a resort town in Portugal while he fights dozens of lawsuits from investors who have accused him of defrauding them in real estate deals.
In March, we reported on Morris’ legal woes that arose after he left Fox & Friends and became a full-time real estate adviser with his wife, Natali. Although he already had a popular real estate investing podcast, his latter venture became “the subject of multiple lawsuits and complaints to attorneys general alleging that Morris deceived real estate purchasers he was supposedly helping to find financial freedom,” Ellen wrote.
According to the Indianapolis Star, instead of financial freedom, Morris’ investment company left "a trail of disgruntled investors, tenants living in deplorable conditions and dilapidated Indianapolis homes that could plague the city for years.”
“While Morris lives in a $1.45 million luxury home in New Jersey, some investors who thought they were buying turn-key rentals are saddled with boarded up hovels, empty lots, stacks of health and nuisance violations from the city and lost savings,” The Star also noted in March.
Now Morris has left the country, insisting that he is not trying to hide from the law. According to a July 12 Indianapolis Star article, the Morris family has moved to a "coastal resort town" in Portugal.
In an email to IndyStar, Morris's wife and business partner, former MSNBC anchor Natali Morris, said they plan to continue fighting the lawsuits from abroad. They have denied responsibility for investor losses, instead blaming their Indianapolis business partner Bert Whalen and his company, Oceanpointe.
"We have and continued to take responsibility for all of our legal challenges that came from our relationship with Oceanpointe. We have answered all of our attorney general requests in all states. We have answered all lawsuits," Natali Morris said.
"We have not run from anything," she added. "We continue to show up for this until the last lawsuit is dismissed and it is clear that we neither had the money from Oceanpointe investors nor did we defraud anyone."
Not surprisingly, the couple is still playing the victim. The IndyStar wrote that Natali Morris thinks her husband is getting too much blame because he’s a former Fox News host (which surely helped him acquire clients). In a blog post, she wrote, “I carry a pain with me knowing that he is in pain and it is with me always. His health began to suffer. He began to withdraw emotionally and it was hard on our family. We both knew that we had to make a change if we wanted to survive."
Such a situation surely must be awful for the Morris family, especially if they did nothing wrong. But you’d think Natali Morris could spare a paragraph or two about what the investors are suffering. Yet she said nothing about them.
(Morris image via screen grab)