Background: A.J. Quartermaine is a fictional character from General Hospital, an American soap opera on the ABC network. Born on-screen in 1979 as the only biological child of the iconic Drs Alan and Monica Quartermaine, A.J. was SORASed in 1991, revising his birth year to 1972. The role has been most notably portrayed by actors Sean Kanan from 1993 to 1997, and Billy Warlock from 1997 to 2003, with a brief return in 2005. Kanan made his on-screen return as A.J. on October 26, 2012, after a 15-year absence.
Context: A.J. agrees to pass the child off as his own, in order to get revenge on Jason for hiding Michael's paternity. A.J. is furious when he learns that Carly's child is actually fathered by Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) and Sonny comes to claim the unborn child. In May 2000, Carly and A.J. get into an argument and she ends up falling down a flight of stairs and miscarries. A.J. is later disinherited by his family and forced to move out of the mansion. Meanwhile, Sonny and Carly schemed to gain custody of young Michael. Sonny kidnaps A.J. and threatens him into signing over his parental rights to Michael; Sonny later adopts Michael. A.J. became even more self-destructive and destroyed his relationship with Hannah Scott when nearly died from alcohol poisoning. When Monica has a health scare, A.J. decides to move back into the mansion and reconciles with his family. A.J. also bonds with his long lost sister, Skye Quartermaine (Robin Christopher) who also battled with alcoholism. Together, they planned to bring Michael back into the Quartermaine fold. In January 2002, A.J. begins pursuing Sonny's little sister, Courtney Matthews (Alicia Leigh Willis) in an effort to drive Sonny crazy and get Michael back.  In April 2002, A.J. marries Courtney and Sonny nearly kills him. A.J. offers to give Courtney a divorce if he gave Michael back but Sonny refuses the offer. A.J. eventually falls for Courtney and gave up his family for her. Sonny instructs Jason to watch over Courtney and A.J. is jealous of their budding relationship. He turns to alcohol and crashes his car through the Oasis strip club. Courtney becomes a stripper at the club to pay off his debt. A.J. burns down the club and Courtney convinces Jason to cover for him. Wanting Courtney to depend on him instead of Jason, A.J. hires the former owner of the Oasis, Coleman Ratcliffe (Blake Gibbons) to terrorize Courtney; however the plan backfires when Courtney learns the truth. Courtney wants to end the marriage and A.J. swears revenge on Jason. He teams up with Skye to frame Jason and Brenda Barrett (Vanessa Marcil) for the murder of Luis Alcazar (Ted King). A.J. gets his chance to run ELQ when he becomes CEO after Ned is falsely accused of rape. However, A.J.'s efforts to redeem himself came up short and he became involved with Lydia Karenin. The couple left town together after A.J. emptied his entire family's bank accounts.  A.J. returns in February 2005 to reveal that he and Courtney are still legally married when she announces her engagement to Jasper Jacks (Ingo Rademacher). A.J. also kidnaps Sonny's kids including Michael; he fakes Michael's death and attempts to leave the country with the boy. Instead, A.J. returned to the Quartermaine mansion and Alan attempts to help his son. Jason finally comes to the rescues and A.J. ends up shooting Alan during a confrontation with Jason. A.J. ends up in the hospital with a broken back, and he is apparently murdered by Dr. Asher Thomas on April 26, 2005. Years earlier, A.J. hired Dr. Thomas to kill Jason and Alan had been using the information to blackmail him. Michael is initially one of the suspects but his name is cleared after the truth is discovered.
Question: What happened in 2003?

Answer:
The couple left town together after A.J. emptied his entire family's bank accounts.