Aunt became distant after retirement and inheritance upset, could money be why?

[Saddaughter999]

Has anyone seen a close relative completely change after retirement/pension age?
My aunt is in her early 60s and started receiving her pension a few months ago. She has always been quite materialistic, if I'm honest. Most conversations revolved around money, purchases, or what people owned. Every single time we used to visit her she would show new clothes, kitchen appliances, etc.
For years, she and her husband were comfortably off, largely because his family supported them financially. My aunt's father-in-law would often pay for unexpected expenses, holidays, and generally help them out. He died earlier this year, and there was a lot of family drama over the inheritance. They ended up receiving much less than they had expected, while her sister-in-law inherited most of the estate.
At the same time, we've had a fortunate year ourselves. We sold one house and managed to buy another at a very good price because the owners wanted a quick sale. We didn't need a mortgage, and the house is already worth around £50k more than we paid.
Ever since the family found out, my aunt has almost completely stopped communicating with me. She always has an excuse not to meet, ignores my messages and phone calls, and has become very distant.
We finally saw each other yesterday, and I was genuinely shocked. She was rude and accused me of only caring about money because we'd bought a house. It felt completely out of character, and I left feeling really upset and confused. She knows we were working hard all our lives, usually between 2 or even 3 jobs ,it's not the situation that we "got" money as a gift/inheritance.
Part of me wonders whether she's struggling with the reality that her financial situation has changed so much, especially after losing the support they had for years.
Has anyone experienced a relative suddenly becoming resentful or distant after retirement or a change in their finances? Am I reading too much into it, or does this sound like jealousy, grief, or something else?

Sounds like too much over sharing of finances and personal business with family. That often comes across of indirect showing off or bragging ime.
Your aunt is pissed off in part because the gravy train has been halted and you are now doing well.

Exactly this.

You have to be really committed to want to find that out.

Unless the purchaser was boasting about it…

It costs money to get the bit that shows it. Not much but yeah you'd have to be really bothered.

or alternatively the OP could have had a very normal conversation with her parents, telling them that she and her husband had decided to move house and it could easily have come up in conversation that they have paid off the original mortgage and could finance the new purchase entirely out of the equity. Nothing out of the way about that at all. It would have made the whole purchase a lot quicker and easier, which many people would have mentioned. Her parents then mention this to the aunt while making small talk.

As for the £50k increase in value since purchasing, that is slightly odd, but maybe they had their reasons for getting a valuation done. It could simply be due to the OP and her husband cleaning, re-decorating, doing some basic maintenance and improvements like replacing bathroom and kitchen fittings, and they remarked what a huge difference it had made.

To someone as money-minded as the aunt, all this would sound like boasting, because if she'd come out with it would have been.

I found this out the hard way too . Didn't realize that my brother was always jealous of my financial situation. But it was from a mixture of careful saving and an inheritance on my DP side . I'd like to think that I never bragged about it or was excessive. He chose to live lavishly as a single guy which I never commented on . For some reason he thought I should gift him some of my inheritance despite me having three children.

I think you sound quite money minded too OP - hence your comment about house being worth £50k more -maybe dont go around discussing it if you don’t want to bring out the green eyed monster in some people- clearly their gravy train has ended and if she’s drawing pensions and in her early 60s then she’s drawing down on private pensions , so given they didn’t do as nicely as they thought she would it’s maybe a bit tight at their end .

My friends mum declared she wouldn’t visit ever again if she got a patio because she had always wanted one and never got one. I’m always staggered at people who continue to try and have any meaningful relationship with someone who has demonstrated so clearly that they would rather you didn’t have nice things. But then I remember how long it took me to see it that clearly myself in my life. There is no room whatsoever for that level of spite. And it is spite. She has inevitably lowered her standing with you to harm you so that she felt better having laid you low. It’s as disgusting as it looks.