Richard was sentenced for his crime of "existing" and tasked to denounce the importance of status and find value in his own identity. Well, needless to say, he took this as a personal insult, because to him his status is his identity etc etc. If anything this sentence made him value his status as king even more. The ghost of his father might've even made a visit to his dreams to endorse this line of thought.

But he still decided to go for it, kinda. Sorry for old man yaoi hours but: he refuses to let his relationship to another man to be known by others because he doesn't want it to affect the way people would think him as a king and have it color his legacy because that along with the status of king is most important to him in the world (there's lot of religious trauma to unpack there).

But! Outside of it: he did a network post where he just signed with his own name. None of that Duke of X, son of Y, stuff. And he hosted a get-together to show off his success and actions, outside of his role as a noble.

But is any of it really sincere? idk fam. you decide what to do here.