Schad was adopted as a baby. Her mother was a Choctaw girl of 16 (who was herself orphaned at 13 and raised by her uncle) and her father was a Cherokee boy.
She is said to be the person after whom Pocahantas in the Disney film was modeled.
Her adoptive family is white and she was raised in several countries because her father was in the US Air Force.
Schad has traced her birth mother and they are in contact.
She has been married and divorced and is now the girlfriend of the heir to Lord Hanson, one of Britain's wealthiest men.