At home with Nancy Grace! The tigress turns pussycat at her new digs
Bombshell tonight! Nancy Grace is a softie who loves nothing more than snuggling up with her husband and eight-year-old twins Lucy and John David and reading Harry Potter books, editing out the scary parts.
It’s a far cry from the Nancy Grace we watch every evening on HLN - the acid-tongued, tough-as-nails former prosecutor who has taken her crusade against crime to her top-rated cable television show.
Nancy was all gracious Southern charm as she welcomed Daily Mail Online to her new Georgia home one recent morning with homemade turkey sausage and cheddar cheese breakfast muffins - hot from the oven. Oh yes, Nancy knows how to cook - but more about that later.
The couple's new house is a contemporary country style with a Mediterranean flavor, featuring vaulted ceilings, imposing columns and wood beams. And it's totally kid-friendly.
Actually, it's even more than that. It's a kid's fantasy land with secret doors and passageways, a bedroom fit for a princess and a pirate, a bright red tubular slide that runs from an upstairs closet to the basement playroom and even a zip line in the backyard.
SCROLL DOWN FOR NANCY'S UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL TOUR OF HER HOME
Full of Grace: Talk about Southern hospitality! Nancy and her husband David Linch's new country-style home that is as warm and welcoming as the couple themselves. Nancy discovered the parcel of land three years ago and it was the couple's dream to build their dream house on the property
When it comes to catching a killer or finding a lost child, Nancy is all business. Last February she celebrated her tenth anniversary at HLN
Welcome in: Vaulted ceilings and imposing columns greet visitors to Nancy's new abode. Mediterranean-style lattice work adorns the front hall window. Glance down at the tiled floor at the entry way and you find a mosaic of the sun, moon and two stars that symbolize Nancy, David and their twins. A blown-up photo of the youngsters can be see down the hallway- it was a special gift from Nancy to David
Key player: The centerpiece of Nancy's formal living is the baby grand piano. How she got it is a story unto itself. Nancy's mom Elizabeth, an accomplished pianist, told her daughter she found a great deal on a piano. Nancy was all in, but as it turned out her mom had misplaced a decimal point when she sent the price. When Nancy got the bill she flipped. It took her a year to pay it off and she told the twins: 'You're taking piano lessons for the rest of your lives'
Let there be light: Nancy says you wouldn't recognize the ceiling fixture from the rusted out monstrosity she first spotted it in a used lamp store. But the TV talk host saw potential. She had it restored, took out the ugly cabbage leaves and replaced them with faux candle covers and turned it upside down
The formal dining room boasts a beautiful ash table, made in Italy, is Nancy's first-ever formal dining table. Nancy bought the silver tea service, at right on the sideboard, on layaway when she was a prosecutor. The TV talk star is looking forward to large family dinners over the holidays but the dinners will be bittersweet. Nancy recently lost her beloved father Mac, who was a freight agent for Southern Railway
Just outside the dining room is a patio with a fountain and blue and yellow mosaic design that adds to the home's Mediterranean feel
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'I love the simplicity of our home,' Nancy tells Daily Mail Online. 'I'm so excited.'
Nancy, 56, discovered the parcel of land on which the home was built when jogging one morning three years ago and she and David, 57, decided it was the perfect woodsy spot for their dream dwelling.
The spacious house, seen in these exclusive Daily Mail Online photographs, has been a labor of love for Nancy and her investment banker husband David, 'the guy everybody wants to find and marry,' says Nancy.
'David's been with me through thick and thin. He's the rock in my life,' says teary-eyed Nancy.
'David is very quiet, but extremely self-confident. He's very unassuming and he goes along with all my crazy ideas.'
Some of those crazy ideas are not so crazy at all. An avid do-it-yourselfer, Nancy spent a month laying down a mosaic of pennies, doubloons and other 'pirate treasure' for the bathroom on John David's pirate-themed side of the twin's bedroom. She did have a pro come in and help and then glaze the floor, however.
When a set of curtains turned out to be too short for one set of windows in the 24-foot-high rooms, Nancy trawled the local fabric stores, found some material that worked with the design and stitched up a new bottom. Voila! Now they were the right length.
She credits her mother, Elizabeth, for teaching her how to 'do stuff'.
'Mom canned our food, made our clothes, I grew up thinking if you can imagine it you can jerry rig it and do it. I love to dream up something and make it happen.'
She considers herself no different from her 'audience moms', stay-at-home moms or working mothers, doing the best she can for her twins. And her best shines through in Lucy and John David, who are as adorable and polite as can be - with a mischievous twinkle in their eyes passed on - no doubt - by Nancy.
Nancy's do-it-yourself talents extend to the kitchen. 'Shall we order Chinese,' she asks the family? 'Pizza'? Oh no, they would rather sit down to one of Nancy's homemade Crock-Pot meals. Yes, Nancy is queen of the Crock-Pot too (stay tuned, we can just see a Nancy line of cookware called The Graceful Cook on store shelves).
Nancy shuns red meat and puts the emphasis on healthy eating. But the busy mom is not averse to opening a can.
The family favorite: chicken and stars. She plops Italian mini stars (a star-shaped pasta she gets at her local supermarket); cut up chicken thighs (either cooked on the rotisseries or steamed), organic chicken broth and Healthy Request Campbell’s cream of chicken and chicken Goya into the Crock-Pot..
Photographs and paintings of Lucy and John David take center stage throughout Nancy and David's home. One of Nancy's many fans embroidered the image of the twins, taken from a photograph. On the right are the Christening outfits worn by Lucy and John David
Great room: The wood-beamed den is part of the great room - the kitchen is on the other side - where Nancy and David relax and spend most of their time with the twins. Note the curtains with scenes from Hamlet - before she studied law Nancy had dreams of teaching Shakespearean literature. Nancy had some tricks up her sleeve when she had the room designed. Look at the paneled wall to her right...
Open sesame! Lo and behold, the wall opens up - all the better for Lucy and John David to play hide and seek
Nancy has taken her down home cooking talent (she jokingly calls mixing two different jars of spaghetti sauce making it from scratch) to the TV screen too. HLN produced a six-episodes of the digital series Cooking with Nancy Grace last month
The things that Nancy treasures most in her home - besides family, of course - are the objects she has stumbled upon in her travels and quirky shops. Nothing pleases Nancy more than a bargain.
She's a big fan of Lowe's, Target and Pier One. She bought the fabric for the den curtains, with scenes from Hamlet - her favorite Shakespeare play - from an outlet store.
Born in Macon, Georgia, Nancy worked for ten years as District Attorney in Atlanta - 'one of the murder capitals of the world' - she's quick to note. Drug crime was rampant as she says Atlanta was the first major stop for drug mules going up from Miami to New York.
'We had a ton of murders, the more I could the prosecute, the happier I was,' she reveals, 'my goal was to get through law school and then put away as many bad guys behind bars as I could.'
The Fulton DA, Lewis Slaton, was a mentor to Nancy and allowed her to become a trial lawyer - unheard of for women at the time.
She handled nothing but violent crime for 10 years.
During her time as a trial lawyer, she says: 'My cases were like family, they were like children to me. I became extremely attached to every victim's family. I bonded with them in my pursuit for justice.’
Nancy moved from the law to TV after meeting Court TV founder Steven Brill and signed up to host a legal commentary show alongside Johnnie Cochran, famed OJ Simpson defense attorney, after having a 'big old fight' with him about the law during a dinner. When Cochran left the show, she was moved to a solo trial coverage show on Court TV.
In 2005, she began hosting a regular prime time legal analysis show called Nancy Grace on HLN and in 2007, she announced she would be leaving Court TV to concentrate on her HLN show.
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Family time: Nothing warms the cockles of Nancy's heart more than cuddling up with David and the twins and reading a book, in this case Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. This is Lucy's princess bed on her side of the twin's huge joint bedroom area
Pretty in pink: It is a room fit for a princess, complete with a closet for Lucy's hair bow collection (to the right of her bed) and her own bathroom. To see the secret door in Lucy's closet, see Nancy's video
The pirate and the princess: Lucy and John David turned eight in November and Nancy and David went to the local animal shelter to choose pets for the twins - a dog for John David (Nitro) and a kitten (Cinammon) for Lucy
Rub a dub, Nancy's in the tub: Nancy is as playful as any mom can be, here hiding out with a cup of coffee in Lucy's fit for a princess tub
This is John David's side of the room. When the twins are older, Nancy will build a wall so they each have their privacy
Nancy's masterpiece: The crime show queen created this piratical-mosaic pattern for John David's bathroom floor, laying down each penny, doubloon and piece of what she calls 'pirate treasure,' coins collected during the family's on summer vacations. It is the pièce de résistance of her DIY projects. She does admit that she brought in a pro to glaze and finish the job
Dive bomb: Lucy takes a turn down the bright red tubular slide. There's a secret door upstairs that opens to the top of the slide
Here comes John David: The kids could take the stairs but they prefer to get to their basement playroom this way
Nancy became famous for her on-air demeanor, which can range from aggressive to accusatory as she became an outspoken media fixture during Michael Jackson's trial, Natalee Holloway's disappearance, Anna Nicole Smith's death and then the later Casey Anthony murder trial.
She continues: 'The public would probably be very surprised if they actually knew me. I don't want the spotlight to be about me.'
Regardless, Nancy is much sought guest on talk shoes and the subject of parodies poking fun of her spirited and often cantankerous style - and Southern accent - on Saturday Night Live and in movies like Gone Girl.
'I want the focus to be on the cases, unsolved homicides, stopping child abuse. Surprisingly, I very rarely get angry in my regular life
'I think if I quit, other than being a mom to the twins, I would have no other purpose because I believe that my duty is to fight crime.'
She does not, she declares, care about 'cars or fancy houses of jewelry...I drive an old beat up mini van which I love', adding: 'I feel very strongly that there is nothing special about me. The things that have happened to me and that I've lived through have given me a voice that I intend to use to the best of my ability.'
When Nancy and David had their children and the focus was more on family and their new home definitely reflects their love and devotions to the twins.
Nancy was 47 when she had Lucy Elizabeth and John David and battled through numerous complications including blood clots. Nancy says she can no longer take her work and all-consuming passion for crime home with her.
'I won't have my children who are so joyful exposed to what mommy is doing. They're immersed in their own world of fairies and wizards and unicorns. "
Of course Lucy and John David know that she's on TV and they've asked her what she does. She tells them: 'Mommy's trying to put the bad guys in jail.' They've seen snippets of her show, but nothing graphic.
How does she decompress from the heavy-heating show she does each night? 'The moment I see Lucy and John David, it all falls away. I'm immersed in the twins' world of fairies, wizards and unicorns.
She says: 'Before the twins, I was totally consumed with crime, I was an all-night fanatic. Now, I can't do that. I can't bring that home to the twins, I have to be the happy mother that they deserved, and for me, it's been a blessing. I have so many blessings in life I never dreamed of having.'
Olé: Nancy found the beautiful Mexican ceramic bowl that adorns the guest bathroom in her travels and turned it into a sink. The guest towel reads: 'Great is thy faithfulness I will sing of the Lord's great love forever' from Psalm 89
Hot seat: Nancy is particularly proud of the mosaic Mexican toilet she found and added the blue tiled around the bottom to bring it up to the right height. Lucy picked out the candlesticks on the chest (right)
Does Nancy get any rest? Not much since she's up until the wee hours preparing for her HLN show and then rises early to spend time with the twins before school. But when she does get to sleep it's in the spacious master bedroom, complete with fireplace
Serenity: The relaxing master bathroom, with its claw-foot bathtub and double marble and wood vanities has an inlaid tile floor
We are family: Treasured photos of Nancy and David and the twins adorn the top of Nancy's bathroom vanity - as well as a note from the late Joan Rivers
Among Nancy's treasured photographs is a note from comic legend Joan Rivers: 'Nancy-I love you!!! xoxox'
Daddy time: Nancy calls David 'the guy everybody wants to find and marry. He is very quiet, but extremely self-confident. He's very unassuming and he goes along with all my crazy ideas'
Cooking up a storm: Nancy's kitchen - on the other side of the den that makes up the great room - is massive but at the same time warm and welcoming. Someone's in the kitchen with Nancy, hovering over her double crock pots - your intrepid editor
Unleash the Crock-Pot: Nancy has taken her down-home cooking talent (she jokingly calls mixing two different jars of spaghetti sauce making it from scratch) to the TV screen too. HLN produced six episodes of the digital series last month
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