Jax was originally from Australia, but he and his family moved to Alaska. When Lois Ashton needed a corporate raider to get her company back from Edward Quartermaine, she went to Jax. Jax immediately became interested in Lois, but she was happily married to Ned Ashton, so she introduced him to Brenda Barrett. Brenda wanted Jax to help make Sonny jealous, and Jax went along with it as a way to spend time with Brenda. The two became attracted to each other; the only problem was that Brenda was still in love with Sonny. Jax proposed to Brenda, and she accepted, having realized there was no hope left for her and Sonny.

Jax and Brenda married on his private yacht, and when they returned to Port Charles, they planned to renew their vows in a ceremony at the Quartermaine mansion. Jax was secretly working with Tracy Quartermaine to take over ELQ. That secret was revealed, and Jax backed off on working with Tracy. On the day that Jax and Brenda were to renew their vows, Brenda realized that she truly loved Jax and that he was the one she belonged with.

Unfortunately, Sonny showed up at the wedding with Jax's presumed-dead wife, Miranda, to confront Jax. Jax had been told that Miranda had died in a bombing, but Jax's parents had known the truth. Miranda's face had been badly disfigured after the explosion, so she had let Jax think that she was dead. Jax was torn between Miranda and Brenda, but he realized that he was in love with Brenda. However, Brenda had decided to reunite with Sonny.

When Sonny left Brenda at the altar, Jax was there by Brenda's side. Eventually, he and Brenda became engaged, but it ended in tragedy. In September 1998, Brenda learned that her mother had been diagnosed with a terminal illness that ravaged a person's mind. Brenda feared that she had inherited the gene, and she took a test to find out. Before Brenda learned the results of the test, Brenda's mother drove both Brenda and herself over a cliff, killing them both.

The day of Brenda's funeral, Jax was arrested, along with the rest of his family. Jax's father and brother had started their company with money they had received from the mob. Jax lost everything, but with the help of his friends V, Ned, and Alexis, Jax managed to win a large sum of money in Monte Carlo, which he used to rebuild his empire.

In 1999, Jax met Chloe Morgan at her cousin A.J.'s wedding to Carly. Sparks flew immediately between Jax and Chloe, but Chloe had a problem. She had to get married in order to save her company. Ned offered her a marriage of convenience, so Ned and Chloe, along with Jax and Alexis, flew to Vegas. The only problem was that Chloe's Aunt Gertrude showed up to warn Chloe that a Vegas wedding did not comply with the legal definition of "happily married," as it was stated in the will. To keep Aunt Gertrude from learning the truth about the ruse, Jax and Alexis married instead.

Ned and Chloe, and Jax and Alexis were forced to keep up the charade, prompting Alexis to move in with Jax. Alexis and Jax developed an enduring close friendship during their time together, but his heart belonged to Chloe Morgan. After a romantic courtship, they proclaimed their love, but heartbreak quickly followed when Chloe was struck by a vehicle in a hit-and-run attack orchestrated by Helena Cassadine and intended for Alexis.

Chloe briefly lost her sight, but surgery restored it. After Gertrude caught Jax and Chloe together, the pairs divorced, and Chloe moved in with Jax. Jax seized control of Gertrude's company, allowing Chloe to design under her own name again.

Unfortunately, Chloe had a rapidly growing tumor near her optic nerve. Jax nurtured Chloe through her illness and intended to marry her. Knowing that Chloe needed medication, Helena bought the drug company that manufactured it in an attempt to blackmail Jax into bed. Jax pretended to take the bait then swiftly tied Helena up, electronically purchased the drug company, and left with the drug sample that Helena had in her possession.

When Chloe began having visions of Helena murdering Stefan Cassadine, Jax took Chloe on a tropical vacation. Helena followed them and attempted to kill Chloe. She was unsuccessful and escaped without detection. Meanwhile, Stefan needed Chloe's psychic abilities, so he lured Jax away by dangling the prospect of a reunion with Brenda under his nose. The plan succeeded. On August 28, 2000, Jax ended things with Chloe then embarked on a search for Brenda.

While on his quest, Jax hired and had an affair with professional tracker Angel Ellis. Angel introduced Jax to Kristina Carter, who had hired Angel to find her sister. Jax realized that Kristina and his ex-wife Alexis Davis were sisters. On August 10, 2001, Jax returned to Port Charles with Kristina. Jax dealt with his broken engagement to Chloe Morgan. Chloe didn't care about Jax's reasons for hurting her and wanted nothing to do with him, but Jax remained protective of her.

On September 4, 2001, Jax received the devastating news that Chloe had been murdered. He firmly believed that Stefan Cassadine was the murderer, so Jax - hoping to protect Alexis and Kristina -- joined forces with the "good" Cassadines to take down the "bad" Cassadines.

After Helena and Stavros -- Chloe's true killer -- were dealt with, Jax, who had been buying up huge amounts of Cassadine properties, sold them back at cost to the Cassadine estate. He then turned his attention to the ruination of the Quartermaines. With the assistance of Skye and A.J. Quartermaine, Jax obtained controlling interest in ELQ. Finally, Jax faced his longtime nemesis, Sonny Corinthos. Jax decided to back Carly, Sonny's ex-wife, in her new club venture. He also was able to obtain condemnation notices on most of Sonny's properties in Port Charles. But while Jax toppled financial empires, he began to fall for Skye Chandler-Quartermaine.

Jax initially disliked Skye, although that didn't stop Skye from trying to get Jax to help her go after Sonny. He refused and continually tried to warn her away from getting entangled with Sonny. Sexual tension slowly developed between Jax and Skye, despite repeated arguments and setbacks in their growing partnership. When he suspected her of developing feelings for him, Jax informed Skye that he didn't feel capable of ever falling in love again. She took that as a challenge and continually found ways to get Jax to go to her aid by pretending to be a damsel in distress.

Skye almost got herself killed in March 2002 after one of her schemes went awry, and she nearly froze to death swimming to shore. Luckily for Skye, Jax found her, and the two ended up making love later that night. Around that time, Jax invested in a business with Carly, but Carly faked her death in an accident then embezzled money from the business. Jax confronted Sonny about Carly's crime, forcing Carly to relinquish her shares of the business to Jax. Jax gave the club to Skye to run.

Unfortunately for Jax, Skye wasn't a better business partner because she had been conspiring with Edward Quartermaine to claim the Quartermaine fortune. Edward had played on Skye's insecurities regarding Jax's love for Brenda, and he had persuaded her to steal the map to the Jacks family oil wells. However, someone else got to the map first. When Edward threatened to reveal Skye's misdeeds to Jax, she fought Edward, and he had a stroke.

In August 2002, Ned discovered Skye's contract with Edward, and he forced her to tell Jax the truth. Betrayed, Jax ended things with Skye. However, when she got drunk, blacked out, and woke up to discover Edward's respirator unplugged, she feared the worst and went into hiding. Jax rescued her and eventually forgave her. They resumed their engagement and wedding plans.

On September 26, 2002, Jax and Skye were married. Later that night, as Skye prepared for bed, Jax stepped outside and saw a ghost from his past: Brenda. Brenda was very much alive. She had survived the car crash and had been rescued by a passing ship. The owner of the ship, Luis Alcazar, had fallen in love with Brenda and had been caring for her. Luis had promised Brenda that he would help her stay away from her loved ones to spare them any unnecessary pain from the effects of the mental illness she had inherited from her mother. However, Brenda had been compelled to see her loved ones a final time before the symptoms of the illness began to manifest.

Brenda was also desperate to get away from Luis. Jax promptly postponed his honeymoon and focused his energies on protecting Brenda from Luis. Luis was equally desperate to get Brenda back, and he shot Jax, which left Jax paralyzed.

Jax began to push Skye away then enlisted Brenda's help to make it clear that it was over. Brenda also helped Jax with his recovery, but Skye had her suspicions about Brenda, and she began to dig into Brenda's past. Skye was shocked when she discovered that Brenda hadn't inherited the illness, but she decided not to share the news. Jax found out on his own, and he dumped Skye when he learned that she had already known.

Jax shared the news about her illness with Brenda, and the two reunited. On the night of Jax and Brenda's engagement party, thrown by the Quartermaines, Luis and Skye crashed the party, but their former lovers snubbed them. Later that evening, Luis was thrown off the balcony of his hotel suite to his death, and Brenda was one of the prime suspects, thanks in part to Skye's "eyewitness" account of the murder. Jax did everything he could to prevent Brenda from going to jail, including hiring Alexis to defend her then confessing to the crime himself, but Brenda was found guilty, along with Jason Morgan, and was sentenced to jail.

After the killer was revealed to be Alexis, Jax forged full steam ahead with his plans to marry Brenda. However, Jax jilted Brenda at the altar because he had seen her kissing Sonny the night before the wedding. Jax tried to console his broken heart with random women, even call girls. This surprised Skye, who tried her best to console him, but he pushed her away.

Although the romance was gone, Jax continued to help Skye out of various sticky situations. Jax also tried to help Alexis by getting her a good defense attorney for her trial lawyer, and Jax tried to persuade Ned to let Alexis have visitations with her baby daughter, Kristina.

In December 2002, Sonny had a new nemesis named Faith Roscoe. Sonny had ordered a hit on Faith's husband, and she was out for revenge. Jax quickly teamed up with Faith to take down Sonny. Jax and Skye continued to be a part of each other's lives, and, despite not being romantically linked, Skye asked Jax to father a child with her, but Jax declined.

In October 2003, Jax was hot on the trail of the Dead Man's Hand -- the five cards that Wild Bill Hickok had held in his last hand of poker the night he had been shot dead. Jax was after the cards because his father had maintained possession of them for the greater part of his life and believed them to be his lucky charm. However, someone had stolen the cards from John, and John had subsequently lost the will to live without the cards.

On October 1, 2003, Jax met an adventurous young woman named Samantha McCall. Sam also wanted the cards, but for the opposite reason. Her family had also had possession of the cards at one time and considered them to be the cause of a string of bad luck. Sam hoped to find the cards and destroy them.

Together, Jax and Sam figured out that someone from Port Charles had stolen the cards. Once they were in Port Charles, they narrowed their search to A.J. Quartermaine, who had possession of four of the cards and swiftly figured out that Sam and Jax knew something about the last card. Caught sneaking into the Quartermaine mansion, Jax and Sam were forced to pretend to be a couple. Jax made a bet with Sam, with the cards as the prize, that she couldn't convince anyone that she was an heiress. She lost, but sexual tension simmered between them as they tried to get their hands on the cards.

When the cards were stolen, the thief turned out to be one of Sam's former lovers, who tried to bargain one night of sex with her for the cards. Jax finally obtained the cards once and for all and headed off to show them to his father. Sam managed to stow away in his car and persuaded him to let her test the true luck of the cards at a casino along the way. The pair also finally gave in to their passion and made love. Jax made it to his father's deathbed, but just as he was about to show John the cards, John breathed his last breath and died.

Devastated, Jax pushed Sam away, blaming her for making him waste time in getting the cards to his father. Jax also discovered that Sam had rigged his rental car to break down. To get revenge, he paired up with Tracy Quartermaine, who had recently returned to town, to use Sam and get the cards back to open a new casino. It quickly became a question of who was double-crossing whom, as Sam agreed to betray Jax and get the cards to Luke so that he could open a casino on the newly returned Haunted Star ship.

Although Sam had entered into a relationship with Sonny, Jax and Sam found comfort in each other's arms one night when they were trapped together in the Port Charles hotel fire. Sam and Jax both made it out of the fire unharmed, and Jax promised Sam that he would not tell Sonny they had slept together.

In April 2004, Jax was blackmailed into a brief engagement to Tracy Quartermaine. Tracy had taken pictures that could incriminate Skye in the death of Detective Ross Duncan. Tracy would not share the photos if Jax agreed to marry her. A few days later, Jax ended his deal with Tracy when he learned that Sam was pregnant. Jax decided to focus on the paternity of Sam's baby, as either he or Sonny could be the baby's father.

Sonny's sister, Courtney Matthews, created a foundation for underprivileged children, and Jax became her major financial backer. Jax respected Courtney's decision to avoid financing her foundation with Sonny or Jason's mob money. When Jax learned that he was not the father of Sam's baby, Courtney and Jax bonded over their longing to have a child. Jax invited Courtney on a gambling trip to Monte Carlo then promised her ten million dollars for her foundation if she could resist sleeping with him for three months. Courtney accepted the challenge.

The flirtation between Jax and Courtney continued, and their relationship quickly became serious. Courtney was afraid to fall in love again, so she fled to Sonny's private island, but Jax continued to woo her. Courtney ultimately won the bet, but once the three-month time limit had expired, Jax and Courtney made love.

Jax began another business venture by putting up a new hotel to replace the Port Charles Hotel, which had burned down. Jax tried to impress Courtney by naming his new hotel the Metro Court after her, and he hosted a masquerade ball for the hotel's opening on December 31, 2004. Shortly after, Jax proposed to Courtney, much to the dismay of both his mother and her father. Lady Jane believed Courtney was still in love with her ex-husband, Jason, and Courtney's father, Mike, believed Jax was using Courtney to aggravate Sonny.

Despite parental disapproval, Jax and Courtney became engaged, and Jax stood by Courtney when she was a suspect in the murder of her ex-husband, A.J. Quartermaine. Courtney was cleared of the charges by the time A.J. returned to Port Charles, very much alive. The week before the wedding, Courtney learned that she could not carry a child, but Jax insisted that it didn't matter. Jax's mother and Carly each tried to stop the wedding with claims that Courtney still loved Jason, but Jax and Courtney were married on June 3, 2005.

After the wedding, Liz Webber offered to donate her eggs and be Courtney and Jax's surrogate in exchange for money to pay off Lucky's medical bills. Jax became overprotective of Liz and bonded with her, while Courtney felt left out of the pregnancy. Courtney leaned on Nikolas Cassadine, and they exchanged a kiss. Nikolas' wife, Emily, saw Nikolas and Courtney clad only in robes and assumed they had slept together. Courtney explained to Jax that she and Nikolas had been caught in the rain, but the marriage was over when she admitted to the kiss.

Elizabeth was uncomfortable with Jax raising the baby without a mother, so Jax decided to pretend to forgive Courtney and remain married to her until after the baby was born. He intended to divorce Courtney and secure full custody of the child, but Courtney learned of his plan and left him so she could be with Nikolas. Jax and Liz agreed to share custody of the child, but Liz suffered a miscarriage.

Shortly afterwards, Courtney discovered that she was pregnant. Courtney hoped that Nikolas was the baby's father, but she knew there was a chance that Jax could be the father. Courtney decided to have a paternity test, but Jax arranged for the results to show that he was the father. Jax tried to convince Courtney to reconcile with him for the sake of the baby, but Courtney remained with Nikolas -- the man that she loved. Jax attempted to break up Nikolas and Courtney by trying to reunite Nikolas and his ex-wife, Emily, but he failed.

Luke Spencer discovered Jax had altered Courtney's paternity test, and he blackmailed Jax into selling half of Metro Court to Luke's niece Carly Corinthos. Courtney and Nikolas suspected Jax had altered the first paternity test, and they confronted him. Jax admitted he had made sure the test showed him as the father in order to protect the child from Nikolas' grandmother, Helena Cassadine. Courtney and Nikolas secretly planned another test, which Jax managed to alter again. Courtney planned to divorce Jax and marry Nikolas, but she left town to contemplate what would be best for her baby.

In February 2006, Courtney returned to Port Charles, infected with a deadly encephalitis virus. She gave birth to a son, and Jax confessed to Courtney that Nikolas was the baby's father. Jax promised Courtney he would tell Nikolas the truth, but he lied. Courtney died before she could tell Nikolas the truth about his son. Jax claimed the baby as his own and named the baby John after his own father. As Courtney's closest friend, Carly wanted to watch over Courtney's son.

Jax and Carly bonded while they cared for John and soon developed feelings for each other. Jax proved he trusted Carly when he appointed Carly as John's legal guardian in the event of Jax's death. John's true paternity was almost revealed when a lab technician blackmailed Jax for two million dollars to keep the paternity a secret. Carly learned the truth about what Jax had done, but she agreed to keep the secret. Jax took Carly and her two sons with him to Australia to introduce his mother to John. While they were gone, Courtney's doctor prepared to retire with a clear conscience, and she passed the real results of John's paternity to Robin Scorpio.

At John's christening, Robin revealed the real paternity, and Nikolas claimed his son. Jax was heartbroken when Nikolas was united with his son. Jax planned to join his brother, Jerry, in Africa. Carly tried to convince Jax to stay, and she professed her love for him, but he still left. Jax reunited with Carly when his mother intervened. Lady Jane convinced Carly that Jax was in danger, and Carly showed up to rescue Jax. When Carly found Jax in a hotel with a beautiful woman, she told Jax she was finished with him. Jax realized he loved Carly and returned to Port Charles, determined to win her back.

Carly and Jax became engaged in October of 2006, and they planned to marry one month later, on November 16. Instead, they postponed their wedding and gave that date to Luke and Laura Spencer for their wedding. Jax and Carly planned to marry on New Year's Eve instead. Jax left town prior to the wedding to help Jerry and didn't return in time for the wedding. While Jax was out of town, Carly saw Sonny shoot Lorenzo Alcazar. Carly was forced to marry Sonny so she could not testify against him.

Carly was trapped with Sonny in the Metro Court hostage crisis, and they slept together. Carly was torn between Jax and Sonny. Eventually, Carly chose Jax, and on April 13, 2007, they became engaged again. Carly divorced Sonny, and she and Jax were married on April 27, 2007.

Jax and Carly's marriage did not begin smoothly. They discovered that Jerry had been behind the Metro Court hostage crisis. Jax helped protect Jerry, and Jax asked Carly to protect Jerry, as well. Then, one of Jerry's jilted lovers, Irina, kidnapped Jax. Eventually, Jax escaped and was reunited with Carly, only to discover that their nanny, Leticia, had been murdered, and the Text Message Killer was after Carly.

Carly survived the Text Message Killer and learned she was pregnant, while Jax reconnected with an old friend named Kate Howard. Kate was a magazine editor, and Jax became the major financial backer of Kate's new magazine, Crimson. Carly was jealous of Jax's friendship with Kate and asked Jax to back out of the magazine. He refused.

After Carly suffered a miscarriage in a warehouse explosion, Jax blamed Sonny's violent life for the loss of the child. Then, Carly's son Michael was shot in the head while visiting one of Sonny's warehouses. Jax supported Carly through her grief and her decision to have Sonny sign away all parental rights to his children, but the marriage was over when he learned that Sonny and Carly had slept together after they had placed Michael in a long-term care facility. Jax turned to Kate for a one-night stand then hired Alexis to represent him in his divorce from Carly.

However, Jax asked Alexis to drag out the divorce proceedings, unaware that Carly had asked her lawyer to do the same. Jax realized how much Carly meant to him when she was trapped inside the hospital during a deadly biotoxin crisis. On March 18, 2009, they renewed their wedding vows. The same day, Jerry sent Jax a DVD that explained Jerry's role in Michael's shooting. Jax kept the contents of the DVD from Carly, and he left town to track down Jerry.

Carly became pregnant, but it was high-risk. Carly had a rare blood disorder, and she and Jax disagreed about continuing the pregnancy. Jax wanted her to abort the pregnancy, but she refused. The doctor advised Jax to keep Carly's life as stress-free as possible. The biggest stress Carly faced was an experimental surgery that might reverse Michael's coma. The surgery was a success, but Michael's personality had changed, and he was prone to bouts of anger, generally directed at Carly.

Jax was more determined than ever to keep his family safe from Sonny's business. In August 2009, Jax discovered that Sonny's new employee Dominic Pirelli was an undercover cop. Dominic's real name was Dante Falconeri. His mother, Olivia, worked for Jax and Carly at Metro Court, and Olivia confided in Jax that Sonny was Dante's father. Jax helped Dante gather evidence against Sonny.

Carly made it through her high-risk pregnancy and went into labor at Metro Court. Sonny's wife, Claudia, kidnapped Carly at gunpoint and took her hostage when Sonny publicly revealed Claudia's involvement in Michael's shooting. On November 3, 2009, with Claudia's help, Carly gave birth in a remote cabin. Michael was the first to find Carly. When Michael entered the cabin, he saw Claudia holding Carly's baby and making plans to steal the newborn, so he killed Claudia. Sonny, Carly, and Jason covered up what Michael had done, and Jax went along with it.

Jax and Carly named their daughter Josslyn John. Although Jax's wife and new daughter had survived the ordeal with Claudia, Jax's marriage was under great strain. Carly was furious that Jax had allowed Michael to become close to Claudia when he'd known Claudia had been involved in Michael's shooting. Jax recorded a conversation with Sonny in which Sonny admitted to covering up and disposing of Claudia's body. When Jax realized sending Sonny to prison would end his marriage, he destroyed the tape to prevent Carly from ever finding out what he had tried to do to Sonny. However, Carly did find out Jax had worked with Dante to take down Sonny when Dante's identity as Sonny's son and an undercover cop was revealed.

Dante did not agree with the plan to cover up Michael's role in Claudia's murder. Dante told the court what Michael had done, and Michael was sent to prison. Jax and Carly tried to reconcile, but Carly could not get past Jax's connections to the people that had hurt Michael. Although Jax and Carly planned to divorce, in May 2010, Carly asked Jax to legally adopt Morgan in order to protect Morgan from Sonny's world.

Jax still loved Carly, and he worked with his ex-wife Skye to make Carly jealous. Carly and Jax bantered flirtatiously and considered giving their marriage one more try until Carly confessed to sleeping with Sonny a few months earlier when Michael had been sent to prison. Jax claimed he was ready to divorce Carly.

By September of 2010, Jax and Carly decided to work on their marriage, but Brenda returned to Port Charles. Brenda rekindled things with Sonny, but Carly stopped the wedding. Jax realized that his marriage was truly over. He decided to go for sole custody of Josslyn because he believed that Carly was unable to provide a safe environment due to her association with Sonny and Jason. The custody battle was set aside when Josslyn was diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer.

On March 23, 2011, Josslyn received a life-saving kidney donation when Jake Webber was killed in a hit-and-run accident. After she recovered, the custody battle resumed, and things heated up when Jax took Josslyn home from the hospital. Jax maintained that his daughter would only be safe away from Sonny and Jason. Alexis agreed, but she encouraged Jax to work out a joint custody agreement with Carly and warned him that painting Carly as an unfit mother would be difficult. Carly petitioned for shared custody, and Alexis believed the court might appreciate her willingness to compromise.

Jax decided to illustrate Carly's poor judgment to the court by digging into the past of her new bodyguard, Shawn Butler. Carly had received a message from serial killer Franco inquiring about her daughter, which was her reason for hiring the bodyguard. Jax discovered that Shawn had been dishonorably discharged from the military, but Carly fired Shawn before Jax could use it against her. As the custody hearing drew near, Jax subpoenaed Sonny and Carly's children to testify about the danger they had been exposed to, but Alexis objected because using children to hurt their parents was going too far.

Alexis quit, but Jax remained confident that he would be granted sole custody. The court-appointed mediator met with Carly and Jax prior to the custody hearing, and the mediator recommended that Jax be granted full custody. Later, the court mediator paid Jax a visit in his hotel room, and she drugged his drink. She tore her clothes then made a phone call to the police from inside the hotel bathroom and claimed Jax had tried to assault her.

The police arrived and found illegal drugs in the room and took the woman's statement. Jax was intoxicated when the police arrived, and he was taken into custody. He claimed he'd been set up. Brenda visited Jax at the police station and promised to help him out of his predicament. Both Brenda and Jax were convinced that Sonny had set him up, but they were unable to uncover any proof, and Sonny refused to confess, even to his wife.

Jax was released, but the damage was done. His night in jail had made the news, and the judge granted sole custody to Carly. Jax would only be allowed to see Josslyn at Carly's discretion after he passed a drug test. Jax was devastated by what had occurred and refused to discuss working out a compromise with Carly. Instead, Jax made plans to leave Port Charles. At the same time, Brenda chose to leave Sonny and rebuild her life in Rome with her son.

On July 21, 2011, Jax escorted Brenda and her son to Rome on his private jet. Brenda invited Jax to remain in Rome with her, but he declined and instead made plans to be with his daughter. He sneaked back to Port Charles and kidnapped Josslyn. His escape plans were thwarted when he experienced car troubles during a storm, and he took Josslyn to Robin Scorpio's house. Shawn knew Jax had Josslyn and tracked them to Robin's home. Jax realized it was not in Josslyn's best interest to go on the run with him, and he allowed Shawn to take Josslyn home.

Sonny was also out to find Jax, under the guise of returning Josslyn to Carly. Sonny blamed Jax for destroying his marriage to Brenda, and he sabotaged Jax's plane to prevent him from taking off. Sonny confronted Jax at Robin's house, but Jax was able to escape and made his way to the plane. Shortly after takeoff, the plane went down, and Jax was presumed dead.

On August 22, 2011, Jax's ex-wife Skye Quartermaine found him hidden on the pier in Port Charles, and she agreed to help him secretly disappear. As Jax waited for Skye to make the arrangements, he overheard Carly fondly reminisce about her life with him. He also overheard Carly denounce Sonny and express her regret for not removing Sonny from her life sooner. Jax believed Carly would keep Josslyn safe, and he left Port Charles.

Jax returned briefly to check on Josslyn a few months later. He stayed out of sight and watched her from a distance. Although he planned to keep his return a secret, he ran into Michael in an alley, and Jax provided Michael with advice when he saw that Michael had a gun. Michael told Jax about the recent death of his girlfriend Abby and the plan he had for revenge. Jax offered his condolences and implored Michael to keep Jax's return a secret. Michael agreed. Before Jax disappeared again, he met with Kate at an airport bar and sold his shares of the Metro Court hotel to her.

On August 23, 2012, Jax appeared in Port Charles when he received word that Josslyn had been hospitalized. Someone had injected Josslyn and Alexis with an unknown substance that had triggered a dangerously high fever. By the time Jax arrived in town, after a brief detainment in Shanghai, both Alexis and Josslyn had recovered. Jax enjoyed a reunion with his daughter, and Carly invited him to stay with her and Josslyn at Metro Court. However, he was not pleased to learn that Carly had entered into a romantic relationship with Johnny Zacchara.

Shortly afterwards, Jerry seized control of a local television access and announced that he and his accomplice had injected Alexis and Josslyn with an inoculation to protect them from what was to come. Jerry went on to explain that he had poisoned the water supply within the city and that anyone who had come in contact with the water would only have a few days to live unless they could afford to purchase the counteragent. Jax was shocked to realize that his brother was still alive because Jerry had been presumed dead when the Balkan had shot him then tossed Jerry's body into the harbor.

Jax vowed that he would do whatever it took to save Carly. Jax confronted Jerry, but Jerry was surprised to see his brother and explained that he had never intended for Jax to get sick. Jerry had been the one to arrange for Jax to be detained in Shanghai. Jax tried to reason with his brother and begged him to release the counteragent that would save everyone, but Jerry refused.

After Jerry's arrest, the residents of Port Charles started to show signs of illness. Jason Morgan suspected that Dr. Ewen Keenan was Jerry's accomplice. Jax recognized the name but could not remember why it held any significance, so Jax paid Jerry a visit in jail and asked why Jerry would poison the town -- and ask for a ransom amount that represented the Dead Man's Hand. The brothers recalled the significance the cards had held to their father and how their father had spiraled into a deep depression and lost the will to live after the cards had been stolen from him.

Jax accused Jerry of not being there for their father at the end and stated that he and Jerry could have worked together to return the cards to their father. Jerry revealed that not only had he visited their father, but he had watched Dr. Keenan kill him and had not stopped him. Jerry also confessed that he had stolen the Dead Man's Hand. Jax realized that the brother he had grown up with was gone, so Jax switched tactics.

Jax disarmed the police officer that was guarding Jerry and forced the officer to release Jerry from his cell. Jax hoped to hold Jerry at gunpoint and force him to hand over the counteragent. The plan backfired when an associate of Jerry's appeared and attacked Jax. Jerry and his accomplice escaped. Jax was able to arrange a meeting with the wealthiest citizens of Port Charles and raise the ransom money.

At a shipping warehouse, Jerry's diabolical plot was thwarted, and the town was saved from the toxin. Jerry held a gun on Jax, but Sonny shot Jerry, and Jerry was presumed deceased in an explosion. Jax was heartbroken over the dark turn that Jerry's life had taken, but he was relieved that his family and friends were safe. Jax spent a little more time in town with his daughter, and he and Carly filed for divorce. Jax warned Carly to be careful with Johnny, and he wished her well before leaving town.

In April 2013, Jax paid Carly a visit and revealed that their divorce had never been finalized due to a filing error. Jax explained that he needed Carly to sign another set of divorce papers so he could marry his fiancée, Brenda Barrett. Carly warned Jax that Brenda would always love Sonny more. Jax insisted that Carly was wrong but changed his mind and walked out on Brenda when he discovered that Brenda had gone to see Sonny during their visit.

Jax remained overseas until August 1, 2016, when he stopped in Port Charles for a visit with Josslyn. However, his true purpose had been to discourage Carly from digging into the past. Carly had been shocked to learn that Jake Webber hadn't been Josslyn's kidney donor, so she had set out to find out where Josslyn had gotten the donor kidney. Jax feared that the truth would upset their daughter, but his efforts were in vain because a young woman named Nelle Hayes had stepped forward to reveal that she might be Josslyn's kidney donor. A DNA test confirmed that Nelle was indeed the donor. Jax left town, but Sonny had an uneasy feeling about Jax's reaction to the whole incident.

On April 3, 2017, Jax returned to Port Charles to deliver the news that Lady Jane had passed away. Carly took the opportunity to share that Nelle was the daughter of Frank Benson, Carly's adoptive father, prompting Jax to confess that he had paid Frank the money for Josslyn's donated kidney because Jax had been aware of Frank's periodic demands for money. Jax had intended to tell Carly the truth during his previous visit until he had realized that Nelle hadn't known about his role in the illegal transaction.

Next, Jax arranged to meet with Nelle to explain that he had foolishly believed that Frank would find someone willing to donate a kidney in exchange for a cut of the one million dollars that Jax had paid Frank. Nelle was certain that Jax had been covering for Carly, but he reminded Nelle how hard he had worked months earlier to stop the DNA test because he had hoped to protect Carly from the truth. Nelle remained in denial until Jax provided her with a copy of the endorsed check showing Frank's signature.

The following day, Carly discovered that Sonny had slept with Nelle, so Carly found comfort in Jax's arms. However, Sonny appeared on Carly's doorstep to reveal that Nelle had drugged him to make it appear that Nelle and Sonny had had sex. Sonny was furious when he realized that Carly had slept with Jax. Blaming Jax for Sonny's marital woes, Sonny took steps to have Jax arrested for "moral turpitude" then deported. For a time, Jax was blocked from entering the country, but Carly pushed Sonny to fix things because his actions had hurt Josslyn.

In early March 2018, it was revealed that Jax had set up a secret bank account for Josslyn, using the money that Lady Jane had left her granddaughter. Josslyn explained that the "Adventure Fund" had been set up because "life takes you unexpected places." Josslyn used the money to finance an unauthorized trip with her friends to Niagara Falls.