Sonja Morgan Has To Sell House To Pay Off Debts

NYDailyNews.com:

“Real Housewives of New York” star Sonja Morgan is now renting out her beloved Upper East Side townhouse, which has been on the market for years, and is getting a whopping $25,000 a month to pay the taxes on it until she can unload it.

The sassy Morgan was forced to declare bankruptcy in 2010 after she was sued by Hannibal Pictures, a production company, for allegedly failing to raise money for a film starring John Travolta.

The ex-wife of J.P. Morgan heir John Morgan had hoped to have the judgment thrown out, but a judge upheld a $7 million settlement to Hannibal, with the company enforcing a lien on Morgan’s assets. In 2011 things got worse for the reality star when a federal court upheld the judgment after Morgan appealed.

Morgan then listed her E. 63rd St. five-story, five-bedroom home, which has a fireplace, garden, gym-spa-bath with sauna, and cedar-lined, climate-controlled closets. She was hoping to sell it to pay off her debts, but found no takers. So she’s renting it out to make money until she can unload it. Morgan is living in an apartment nearby on the Upper East Side.

Morgan and her ex-hubby paid $9.1 million for the 4,500-square-foot house in 1998. After listing it for $9.25 million, she cut the price to $7.25 million. Morgan later took it off the market, saying she decided to keep the house.

While trying to get her finances in order, Morgan is also promoting her “fashion lifestyle brand” and producing events for charities. A rep hired to push her personal business recently sent out a press release noting that Morgan is “clearly a fan favorite.”

“She has been named ‘favorite NYC Housewife’ on ‘Watch What Happens Live’ by Andy Cohen, ‘favorite housewife of the entire franchise’ by Tina Fey, and she is on Perez Hilton’s ‘all-time favorite housewives’ list,” it reads.

Her website, Sonja in the City, describes her as a “Fashion Lifestyle Brand, Entrepreneur, Single Mother, Luxury Brand Consultant, Writer, Producer, Event Planner, Performer, Entertainer and Philanthropist.”

As Morgan tries to get out of her financial hole, the rest of the cast is “paranoid” they are about to get canned due to low ratings, Confidenti@l reported last week, after an episode of the reality series drew just 1.2 million followers, an all-time low for the show.

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