Royals

Charles, The Prince of Wales and the girl in the black bikini

In this world exclusive, Woman’s Day meets the other woman from that infamous day at Cottesloe Beach – Dolores Tuffin.
Prince Charles and Dolores Tuffin on Cottesloe Beach

Before Princess Diana, or even Duchess Camilla won him over, the future King of England had an eye for the ladies on the beaches of Western Australia back in 1979.

On November 14th this year in a beautiful full circle moment, Prince Charles will celebrate his 67th birthday on Cottesloe Beach in Perth, Western Australia.

The last time he was there a confident model named Jane Priest famously planted a giant kiss on his cheek causing him to blush, but there was another girl at the same beach who caught the strapping young bachelor’s eye.

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Then and now! Who can blame Prince Charles for being smitten with Dolores? These days she lives happily ever after with her husband George in Perth.

In this exclusive new footage, which has been unearthed after 36 years in storage, a then 30-year-old Prince Charles can be seen frolicking along the shore of the Indian Ocean in a pair of bedraggled see-through swimming trunks.

Perth local Dolores Tuffin, 23, was also enjoying the surf on that fateful March day and, as the footage shows, the heir apparent couldn’t keep his eyes off her!

As the British royal heads back to the sand, he boldly glances in Dolores’s direction – and with her incredible figure clad in a tiny string bikini it’s easy to see why.

“The water was warm and refreshing, I saw the Prince surrounded by his bodyguards and each time he rode a wave in they would be right there with him,” Dolores told Woman’s Day.

A right royal flirt! Prince Charles was clearly taken with a young Dolores Tuffin.

“I would often go to Port Beach to catch the gentle morning sun before heading off to work. When I’d heard that Prince Charles was just down the road at North Cottesloe Beach body surfing, I thought I’d go there the next morning to perhaps catch a glimpse of him,” she fondly remembers.

“I giggled as I witnessed a comical scene, the Prince looked as though he was going to ride a wave in but at the last second changed his mind, his bodyguards all rode the wave towards the shore leaving the Prince unguarded, my guess was he was waiting for a bigger wave,” the now 60-year-old added, and that’s when she caught the future King’s attention.

The infamous kiss that took place on Cottesloe Beach between the prince and model Jane Priest, taken on the same trip that he laid eyes on Dolores.

The footage was provided to Woman’s Day by Dolly and her husband, who was the man behind the camera, and it shows the Prince, who was then single and finally separated from his protective bodyguards, blown away by the stunning brunette.

When the video was filmed in 1979, Charles was going through a romantic rough patch after British aristocrat Amanda Knatchbull turned down his proposal to marry him.

Pesky pants! Clearly still adjusting to the harsh Aussie elements, Prince Charles struggled with his skimpy swimmers.

Famously, Prince Charles’s great-uncle Lord Mountbatten once advised him, “In a case like yours, the man should sow his wild oats and have as many affairs as he can before settling down,” which is perhaps what the handsome future King was keeping in mind during his tour Down Under.

Too bad the girl in the black bikini was already taken – there could have been another Aussie Princess to add to the history books.

Watch the incredible footage of Charles and Dolores in the player above!

There’s no denying that the twosome would have made one very buff pair.

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