Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump kicked off the second U.S. presidential debate Sunday with several personal attacks amid fresh controversy over Trump's leaked tapes. 

Both presidential candidates gave the sign of their widening rift by not shaking hands before the start of the debate.

Donald Trump faced the pressure to give clarifications on the controversial anti-women tapes that were leaked on Friday. 

Trump apologised for the language he used in the tape and denied that he kissed or grabbed women without their consent. Trump added, "It was just locker room talk" and that he was not proud of it. 

Meanwhile, Trump used Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs to distract the tough questions on his own controversial tapes.

Both nominees took questions on the issues related to Syrian crisis, refugees, tax laws, terrorism and Islamophobia. Trump was also asked to respond about his proposed ban on Muslims in America while Clinton faced some tough questions on her deleted emails.

Trump talked a lot about Hillary Clinton's deleted email controversies and asked her to clarify her stand on it.

According to YouGovUs' post-debate poll, 47 percent of voters who tuned in and took part in the poll thought Clinton won the second debate, 42 percent of them thought Trump had the better night.

While the CNN/ORC post-debate poll of viewers, 57 percent thought that Clinton won the second debate, while 34 percent thought that Trump took the second round.

Clinton remained the heavy favorite to win the election leaving behind Trump in a series of post-debate polls.

This was the second of three presidential debates scheduled prior to the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.