Nancy Grace announced today she’s leaving HLN after 12 years when her contract is up in October.

She is the more recognizable face on the network and helped the network convert from its old “Headline News” offerings to its current mish mosh of new, opinion and repeats of “Forensic Files.”

Grace, 56, broke the news ‪Thursday morning to her staff of 18 — some of whom have been working with her since the late 1990s, when she got her start co-hosting on Court TV with the late Johnnie Cochran — at the network's CNN Center headquarters in Atlanta, where Grace shoots the majority of her shows. New York-based staffers learned of her departure simultaneously via video conference call.