Nikki Bella Recalls Nearly Being Kidnapped at Age 15

Nikki Bella is opening up about traumatic events from her past that pushed her into a deep depression during her teen years.

The WWE star told the story of her near kidnapping on the Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia podcast.

“I remember walking home one day from school and this car pulled up behind me really slow and it gave me a really weird feeling and all of a sudden it skimmed me and the man was half naked and tried to pull me into his car and saying crazy things to me,” Bella, 34, revealed. “And it was terrifying. I remember like fighting, running to the nearest house, screaming, crying. Like praying the person 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.”

Bella also underwent a deep betrayal by two guys she thought were her friends that year.

“And then, actually this hits the nail on the head that I literally went into depression, who I thought were two guy friends took a picture up my skirt at school and then passed it around,” the E! star said. “I’ll never forget walking into school that day and everyone’s staring at me and I was like, ‘Why is everyone looking at me?’ And like pointing and laughing. I’m like, ‘What the heck?’ Because I was wearing a thong with my skirt…Imagine a photo like that.”

“I was just destroyed and embarrassed and humiliated,” she continued. “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.”

Bella still struggles to let her guard down with men, she said, but fiancé John Cena is helping her to soften.

“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,” she reveals. “John, I have this giddiness with him and I get lost in his big ole 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.”

Total Divas airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on E!