In 2020 fuelled by fan demand, Producers asked Milner to reprise his role for a guest stint to reunite with on-screen brother Jayden Daniels (Curtis Hannah).

The following year, Jack began to date his homework tutor Edwin (Maxwell Apse) and subsequently struggled with his father Mo (Jarod Rawiri)'s uneasiness with the same-sex relationship.

Whilst doing bar work to pay for university, Jack fell in love with chef Cam McCaskill (Ryan Carter) despite his asserted heterosexuality.

Storing Cam's drugs, Jack narrowly avoided arrest when his brother Curtis (Jayden Daniels) took the blame for him and got jail time.

Later in the year, Jack met and fell in love with new doctor Lincoln Kimiora (Alex Tarrant) but shortly into the relationship realised he was a high-functioning methamphetamine addict.

This saw Jack develop a severe addiction, drop out of medical school, overdose twice, break his arm, and became reliant on Lincoln who was falling in love with Nicole.

Deciding to become fathers whilst Jack recovered from his addiction, Nicole realised she was pregnant from her previous relationship with Lincoln and permitted the two men to adopt the baby when it arrived.

Nicole's daughter Kiri ended up arriving prematurely and dying, leading to Lincoln fleeing Ferndale having been exposed as a drug addict and a cheat.

Returning to medical school, Jack struggled with continued loss when his widowed-stepmother Kate (Laurel Devenie) departed leaving him as the sole Hannah in Ferndale.

The death of Phoenix Warner (Geordie Holibar) reminded Jack of the losses in his family whilst in Ferndale and he opted to cut his placement short.

Jack returned the following year having landed a permanent role as a doctor in the Emergency Department, with Matiu to join him in the coming months.

He was devastated when Curtis was murdered whilst undercover in gangland Christchurch, and began dating the cop investigating, Hamish (Simon Arblaster).

Struggling with romance for months, Jack fell helplessly in love with closeted senior hospital Manager Raj Prasad (Mel Odedra) only to be dumped within weeks.

Jack struggled at the hospital following homophobia from Emmett Whitman (Stephen Lovatt) and Viliami To'a (Theo David), leading to burnout where he falsely accused a gang member of assaulting his daughter.

Upon signing one of his contract extensions, Milner was informed by co-star Frankie Adams (Ula Levi) that the character of Jack was being written into a storyline that saw him come out gay.

'"[2] Jack's final storyline saw him come to terms with the revelation that his new partner Matiu Thompson (Shadon Meredith) was HIV positive,[9] and when the two characters married offscreen in 2020, they became the show's first same-sex marriage.