SHORT TAKES : Pauley: ‘Today,’ Family Clashed

Jane Pauley says she left NBC’s “Today” show, where she was co-host for 13 years, because the job was in conflict with her family life.

“NBC was very serious about keeping me,” Pauley told USA Weekend in this week’s issue. “We were in a mutual state of disbelief. They did not believe I was serious.”

Pauley, who left the morning show five months ago, has exchanged pre-dawn rising for daytime duties at NBC that include substituting for Tom Brokaw on the evening news for three weeks starting May 23.

She says she is a less-stressed mother to her three children, 6-year-old twins Ross and Rachel and 3-year-old Thomas.

“They’re getting a more relaxed bedtime routine,” says Pauley. “I’m more likely to linger over a bedtime story because I’m less anxious to get to bed myself.”