Back in February 1992, the front page of society magazine Tatler asked this surprising question: ‘Is Charles too sexy for his own good?’

At the time The Prince of Wales was a 44-year-old father in the throes of a tumultuous marriage with Princess Diana, from whom he would separate later that year.

Today, it might be harder to imagine the 74-year-old King in quite the same light, Yet the fact is he was once seen as an attractive, athletic – and impeccably eligible – young man with crowds of women fawning over him.

Athletic Charles was often seen stripping off after polo games, giving onlookers a glimpse of his washboard torso.

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In his younger days Prince Charles was considered one of ‘the sexiest people of his generation’. Pictured: A 26-year-old Charles strips off after a 1974 polo game in Windsor

In February 1992, society magazine Tatler story listed Charles among the ‘sexiest people of their generation’ and asked if he were ‘too sexy for his own good?’

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Tatler claimed that women, particularly those over the age of 40, just ‘can’t get enough of him’. Pictured: Prince Charles trekking in the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal in 1980

At other times, throughout his twenties, he was pictured on rugged adventures, on the beach and even having a cheeky kiss with a model in the sea while on a royal tour in Australia.

‘The Prince shovels sexuality,’ claimed Tatler at the time, suggesting that women over 40 couldn’t ‘get enough of him’.

‘These women, who trot around his admiring the muscles, the boyish nape of the neck and that military bearing, know that you only have to see him on the polo field to realise that he has sex appeal.’

As the King awaits his Coronation, MailOnline looks back at photos of a younger Charles, that proved so enthralling in years gone by.

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Boyish charm:  Charles flashes a smile after a polo match in Windsor in June 1979

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Pensive prince:  Charles lost in thought at Cowdray Park polo club in Sussex in 1982

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Sweating it out: Charles feels the heat at a polo match in Windsor, 1975

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It’s a wrap: Charles covers up for a tour of Canada’s Northwest Territories in 1975

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Body of evidence: the Prince snapped changing during a 1975 polo tournament

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The name’s Charles – Prince Charles: attending a banquet in Accra, Ghana in March 1997

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Creating a splash: Charles at Bondi Beach, Sydney, during his tour of Australia in April 1981

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Serving the nation: aboard a Royal Navy Frigate in Devonport in 1974

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What a cheek: the moment waiting photographers got an eyeful as model Jane Priest kissed Charles on Cottesloe beach,  Perth during his 1979  tour of Australia