Nancy Grace, who parlayed her stint as a successful prosecutor into a two-decade career as one of cable’s most recognizable and controversial figures, will depart HLN, her TV home for the past 12 years, when her current contract expires in October.

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.

A network spokesperson tells The Hollywood Reporter that a new series - one that will “utilize the expertise of the current team” - will replace Nancy Grace in the ‪8 p.m. slot following the airing of the final episode ‪on Oct. 13. The decision was a difficult one, according to Grace, who in an emotional interview with THR admits to being “really mixed” about taking a step she’s been “thinking a lot about” for the past three years.

Grace first informed CNN executive vp Ken Jautz, the same man who lured her to the fledgling network, then called CNN Headline News, back in 2005, of her decision in early June. “At the end of my meeting with Ken, I gave him a big hug and he hugged me back. It was like full circle,” Grace says, adding that Jautz is making every effort to “try to relocate everybody” on her staff. “That was a big concern.”

“Nancy has worked tirelessly on behalf of the missing and exploited for more than a decade on HLN,” says Jautz. "She gave a voice to the voiceless, and we are extremely grateful for her contributions to the network. During her remarkable career at HLN, she led the coverage of two of this century’s most talked about and infamous trials, Casey Anthony and Jodi Arias. We will always be champions of Nancy’s mission and are excited to see what’s next for her.“

While her ratings are nowhere near the staggering highs of years past - her afternoon broadcast following the reading of famed filicide suspect Anthony’s not-guilty verdict on July 5, 2011, drew 4.57 million viewers - the lightning-rod legal crusader remains the most-watched and talked-about personality on HLN, averaging 291,000 viewers in May. But that’s only enough to rank her show 42nd out of all cable news programs, two spots behind Fox News' Red Eye, which airs weekdays ‪at 3 a.m.

Read More: Nancy Grace on Casey Anthony Trial: What I Should Have Done Differently (Video)

While she won’t share what factors specifically contributed to her decision, or where she plans on going, Grace says whatever she does next - and she has no plans for a hiatus - will involve "a very large digital component.” Still, she is not ready to walk away from the medium that made her famous just yet.

“I will always be wedded to a traditional platform - which is TV, God help me,” she says. “My plan is to merge those two in an effective way, in my voice, the ‘anti-crime’ voice. Our show has never really been about me. It has been about the stories that we tell and the people we talk about and the mysteries we try to solve and the children we try to bring home. There’s an entire section of our population that I want to reach.”

Shortly before her departure from HLN, her third novel (and fourth book) - Murder in the Courthouse - will hit stores on Oct. 11. The first in a series of Hallmark Channel movies based on the characters from her novels is scheduled to air later that month, with Kellie Martin starring as Grace’s fictional alter ego, Hailey Dean.

Grace, who went to law school and became a prosecutor in Atlanta after the murder of her fiancé when she was 19, has become a leading TV voice for “victim’s rights.” Her nightly show regularly highlights abused and murdered women, missing children, negligent mothers and what she perceives to be miscarriages of justice. Her detractors paint her as channeling the country’s rage for personal gain, frequently to the detriment of the judicial process. But fans love her dedication to seeking retribution for victims of violent crime and are gripped by the often disturbing details of the cases she highlights.