WWE star Nikki Bella details how a 'half-naked' man nearly abducted her when she was 15

Nikki Bella revealed a terrifying incident that took place when she was just 15 years old while talking about her past battles with depression on Monday, 20 November.

Speaking on the Chasing Glory With Lilian Garcia podcast, the WWE star said that she was walking towards her home from school when, out of nowhere, a car slowly came up beside her and a "half-naked" man tried to abduct her while "saying crazy things".

When the man tried to grab Bella, the Total Divas star managed to escape and run towards the nearest house while "screaming and crying", hoping someone would hear her and come to her rescue as she was unaware if she was being chased by the man.

"It was terrifying. I remember like fighting, running to the nearest house, screaming, crying. Like praying the person was home because I didn't know I was being chased. Being a 15-year-old girl, that year, I went through so much and it like broke me," she was quoted as saying by E! News.

If that close abduction incident wasn't enough to rattle Bella, a sick joke played on her at school also contributed to her depression.

One day, while walking in her school, she noticed people staring and pointing at her and laughing. She had no clue about the reason, only to later learn that two boys, who she considered friends, had clicked a "picture up my skirt at school and then passed it around".

"I was just destroyed and embarrassed and humiliated," Bella said. "I never wanted to be seen. I literally went home, locked myself in my room for like three days and refused to come out... It made me so depressed and I was so over men too. I think that's what started to give me independence but it gave me a very big shell. Like putting my emotions away and locking it up and never showing it again."

While the 34-year-old still struggles to deal with her emotions and express them after those incidents, her fiancé John Cena, 40, has helped her become her true self again.

"John has really brought that out in me. So I think it was like the first time people saw me give such goo goo eyes or be so happy and giddy. He would start to break it," Bella said.

"John... I have this giddiness with him and I get lost in his big ol' arms and I'm swept off my feet. I think my mom is kind of this way too. We're just such strong women. My mom's been through so much, so I think that's where I got it from."